From Cleo Abram.

These are the first EVER images of the Sun’s south pole!

We can’t see this side of the sun from Earth, but thanks to ESA’s Solar Orbiter we’re getting our very first look… and it couldn’t come at a more crucial time. Because the Sun’s magnetic poles are about to FLIP!

The Sun goes through cycles of activity over the course of about 11 years. At the minimums, the sun’s magnetic field forms two distinct North-South poles that line up with its geographic poles. But during maximums – like right now – individual magnetic fields point all over the place. Thanks to these new images from the probe, we can see that’s exactly the stage we’re in.

This is crucial to better understand and predict how the sun’s activity will affect us on earth. Our hope is that we can understand why the Sun’s activity comes in 11 year cycles and learn how to predict how strong future cycles will be.

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