The most accurate images taken at the South Pole of the Sun.

The images were taken using the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) on March 30, just four days after the Solar Orbiter closest to the Sun passed.

SO is within the orbit of Mercury, about one-third of the distance between the Sun and Earth. Its thermal shield, measuring 3 mx 2.5 m, protects its ten instruments from heat that reaches 500 ° C.

Mission officers point out that the SO instruments work perfectly and now work together. Six of these instruments are imagers that can reveal the poles of the Sun, of which only the equatorial regions we know at present.

Four other in situ measuring instruments are used to examine the atmosphere around the star.

This combination allows astrophysicists to compare what they see on the Sun and what they see in the solar wind around the probe, millions of kilometers away.

Solar turbulence

New photos and videos show intense atmospheric activity at the South Pole, including several explosions and even a coronal mass ejection, a phenomenon that can reach the Earth’s magnetic field and cause shocks. solar storms disrupting the power infrastructure.

Further, these observations reveal a structure called for by mission officers the Hedgehogand that corresponds to hot and cold gas peaks that extend in all directions.

SO is a joint mission of European (ESA) and American (NASA) space agencies launched on February 10, 2020 and should last 7 to 10 years.

Its purpose is to study the processes at the origin of the solar wind, the solar magnetic field, the vigorous solar particles and transient interplanetary disturbances.