Solar Orbiter's tilted view of the Sun

Thanks to its newly tilted orbit around the Sun, the European Space Agency-led Solar Orbiter spacecraft is the first to image the Sun’s poles from outside the ecliptic plane. 

This image was taken on 23 March 2025, when Solar Orbiter was facing the Sun from an angle of 17° below the solar equator. No other spacecraft has ever imaged the Sun from this angle. The spacecraft's Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument captures the ultraviolet light sent out by the million-degree gas in the Sun's outer atmosphere (the corona). 

The lower half of this image reveals the Sun's south pole. It looks much darker and calmer than the upper half of this image, where brightly lit charged gas (plasma) sticks out from active regions on the Sun's surface. These active regions form in a broad band around the equator, which curves across the upper half of this image. 

Solar Orbiter’s unique viewing angle will change our understanding of the Sun’s magnetic field, the solar cycle and the workings of space weather. 

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Solar Orbiter is a space mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA. The Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument is led by the Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB).

[Image description: Photograph of the Sun as seen in ultraviolet light. The image shows the hot gas in the Sun's outer atmosphere glowing yellow as it extends outwards in threads and loops from the Sun. The bottom third of the Sun, around the south pole, looks darker and calmer than the rest.]