What Did ESA's Solar Orbiter See at the Sun's South Pole?

On June 11, 2025, ESA released the first images ever taken of the Sun’s south pole, captured by the Solar Orbiter spacecraft — a milestone in human scientific history that fundamentally changes how we study our star.

Why No One Had Ever Seen the Sun’s South Pole Before

Every image of the Sun ever taken before 2025 came from roughly the same vantage point: the flat plane of the solar system. The planets, including Earth, orbit no more than about 7 degrees off the Sun’s equator. That means every telescope, every spacecraft, every photograph in history was looking at the Sun’s middle — its equatorial waist — and treating that view as the complete picture.

The poles were always there. We just had no way to look down on them.

How Solar Orbiter Changed the Angle

ESA’s Solar Orbiter mission was designed specifically to break out of that flat plane. Between March 16 and 23, 2025, the spacecraft swung to 17 degrees below the solar equator — more than twice the maximum angle any planet ever reaches. From that position, it trained its instruments on the Sun’s south pole for the first time in history.

The images it sent back were released publicly on June 11, 2025. For the first time, a human civilization had a direct view of one of the Sun’s poles.

What the PHI Magnetograph Found

In a quiet period of the solar cycle — near solar minimum — each of the Sun’s poles holds a single dominant magnetic polarity, like the north or south end of a bar magnet. That clean, organized field is part of what drives the Sun’s entire 11-year activity cycle.

But Solar Orbiter’s PHI (Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager) magnetograph did not find a clean field. It found a chaotic tangle of both positive and negative polarities scrambled together at the pole. The Sun’s magnetic identity at its south pole was, in a word, a mess.

The reason: the Sun is currently at solar maximum, the peak of its activity cycle, and the Sun’s polar magnetic field is in the middle of completely flipping. The old polarity is breaking down. A new one is fighting to take over. The pole is a magnetic battleground.

Why the Sun’s Poles Affect Earth

This isn’t just an abstract curiosity. The magnetic polarity that ultimately wins out at the Sun’s poles determines the large-scale structure of the heliosphere — the vast magnetic bubble that surrounds the entire solar system.

That structure directly controls how galactic cosmic rays reach Earth. Depending on the dominant polarity, cosmic rays are either funneled inward along the poles or forced to spiral along a wavy current sheet that Earth crosses repeatedly. Each crossing can trigger geomagnetic storms and auroras. The Sun’s polar field shapes space weather — and space weather disrupts satellites, radio communications, and power grids.

What happens at the south pole of the Sun reaches Earth in ways most people never consider.

What Comes Next: 33 Degrees by 2029

The 17-degree view from 2025 is only the beginning. Through a series of Venus gravity assist maneuvers, Solar Orbiter will gradually tilt further and further out of the solar plane. By 2029, it will reach 33 degrees — nearly double the current angle — giving scientists a far more direct overhead view of the pole.

That timing matters enormously. By 2029, the Sun will be heading toward solar minimum, and scientists expect the polar field to be settling into its new, post-flip polarity. For the first time ever, we will be able to watch — in detail — how the Sun rebuilds a clean, single-polarity field after solar maximum.

That rebuilding process is the actual engine of the 11-year solar cycle. We have theorized about it for decades. In 2029, we will finally watch it happen.