Spacecraft have traveled to Mars, Saturn, Pluto, and even beyond the outer edge of our solar system. But one region remains largely unexplored: directly above and below the Sun.
This video explains why leaving the solar system vertically is much more difficult than it seems. Earth travels around the Sun at about 67,000 mph, and every spacecraft launched from Earth starts with that same sideways speed.
To fly straight “up” out of the solar system’s flat plane, a spacecraft must first overcome that motion, making the challenge even greater than reaching Pluto.
The video looks at the Sun’s mysterious poles, the historic Ulysses mission, Solar Orbiter’s first views of the Sun’s south pole, the unusual shape of the heliosphere, and future ideas such as solar sails and the solar Oberth maneuver.
In a surprising twist, the best way to go above the Sun may be to dive toward it first.
Why it matters:
Studying the Sun’s poles could reveal important clues about solar activity, the solar wind, and how our solar system is shaped and protected from interstellar space.
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