Up until now, our observations of the Sun have occurred around the solar equator. That’s because all of the planets and operational spacecraft in our Solar System circle the Sun on the same orbital ...

The sun's south pole has been seen for the first time from outside the ecliptic plane in unprecedented images sent back to Earth by a solar orbiter. The Solar Orbiter spacecraft travelled 15 degrees ...

In the coming years, the spacecraft will climb further out of the ecliptic plane for ever better views of the sun's polar regions," ESA’s Solar Orbiter project scientist Daniel Müller said.

Because Earth, like all the planets in our solar system, orbits the sun along a line across a flat, disc-shaped plane in the sky known as the ecliptic. That means all the spacecraft we launch into ...

But in February, Solar Orbiter used a gravity-assist flyby around Venus to tilt its trajectory, enabling a view of the sun from about 17 degrees below the equator.

The Solar Orbiter has been observing the sun since 2021, but it recently went on a side trip to Venus which significantly tilted its orbit and gave it a good view of the sun's polar region.

Solar Orbiter used a slingshot flyby around Venus in February to get out of this plane to view the sun from up to 17 degrees below the solar equator. Future slingshot flybys will provide an even ...

The left image looks down from above the ecliptic plane, and the right image provides a side view. (Credit: Kurlander et al. / Sorcha.space / Univ. of Washington) ...

The alignment will occur along the ecliptic plane — the imaginary line that traces the path of the Sun across the sky. This is where most of our solar system's planets reside.

Until now, all the views of the sun have come from the same vantage point – looking face-on toward its equator from the plane on which Earth and most of the solar system 's other planets orbit ...