Solar Orbiter captures first-ever images of sun’s south pole

The Solar Orbiter spacecraft, a joint mission by the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA, has captured humanity’s first-ever images of the sun’s south pole by maneuvering 15 degrees below the solar equator. These unprecedented ultraviolet images reveal the sun’s chaotic magnetic south pole, providing critical insights into the sun’s 11-year magnetic polarity flip cycle. Unlike Earth’s stable magnetic poles, the sun’s magnetic field reverses approximately every 11 years, a process linked to solar maximum periods marked by intense sunspots and solar flares. The Solar Orbiter’s observations confirm a long-predicted but previously unseen fragmented magnetic mosaic of mixed north and south polarities at the sun’s base, crucial for understanding and forecasting solar activity. The sun’s uneven rotational speed—faster at the equator than at the poles—twists its magnetic field until it snaps and reverses polarity, driving the solar cycle’s dynamic behavior. As the sun approaches its next solar minimum in about five years