Spacecraft captures first image of the Sun's south pole

The Solar Orbiter spacecraft has captured the first images of the Sun's south pole. They show the Sun's magnetic field is like a powder keg ready to explode.

New images from the European Space Agency's (ESA) Solar Orbiter show a view of the Sun's south pole that has never been captured before. The images were taken on March 23. Photo: ESA.

While Earth and the other planets orbit relatively aligned with the sun's equator on an invisible plane called the ecliptic, Solar Orbiter has spent the past few months tilting its orbit 17 degrees below the sun's equator, bringing the sun's mysterious south pole into view for the first time, according to experts. Image: ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/PHI, EUI and SPICE Teams.

New images of the Sun's south pole in a wide range of visible and ultraviolet wavelengths, using three of the 10 instruments on board Solar Orbiter. Credit: ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/PHI Team, J. Hirzberger (MPS).

The result is a colorful picture of data that helps scientists track complex disturbances in the Sun’s magnetic field as it prepares to reverse direction and the high-speed movements of chemical elements as they move through the plasma that makes up the solar wind, the stream of charged particles that determines space weather in the system. Image: NASA Goddard/SDO.

ESA says the new data will help improve understanding of solar wind, space weather and the Sun's 11-year activity cycle for years to come. Photo: ESA.

Not only that, ESA informed that this magnetic disturbance is a temporary phenomenon showing that the Sun's magnetic field is about to reverse, as it usually happens every 11 years. Photo: ESA.

The field reversal marks the end of the period of intense solar activity and the beginning of the relatively quiet period of solar minimum. When the solar minimum begins in about five to six years, the Sun's poles will exhibit only one type of magnetic field as the star pauses its space weather disruptions. Image: ESA/ATG Medialab.

Solar Orbiter will have more opportunities to test this prediction in the coming time. Thanks to Venus's gravity, Solar Orbiter will continue to tilt its orbit further away from the solar equator, reaching an inclination of 24 degrees in December 2026 and 33 degrees in June 2029. Photo: ESA.

Increasingly tilted viewing angles will provide more detailed information about the Sun's poles, enhancing our knowledge of the star. Photo: petapixel.

Readers are invited to watch the video : Universe map with more than 900,000 stars, galaxies and black holes. Source: THĐT1.

Source: https://khoahocdoisong.vn/lan-dau-tien-tau-vu-tru-chup-duoc-anh-cuc-nam-cua-mat-troi-post1547683.html