Humanity takes its 1st look at the sun's poles: 'This is just the first step of Solar Orbiter's stairway to heaven' (images)

(Main) The first image of the sun's south pole as seen by the ESA's Solar Orbiter (Inset) Magnetism around the south pole of the sun.

The European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter has captured humanity's first-ever images of the sun's poles.

If this doesn't seem like a big deal, consider that every image you have ever seen of the sun was taken from around our star's equator. That is because Earth, the other solar system planets, and all other modern spacecraft orbit the sun in a flat disc around it called the "ecliptic plane."