That means the spacecraft moved from the ecliptic plane, and tilted its orbit to 17 degrees in relation with the Sun's equator.

The Sun's polar regions are pretty busy and chaotic places, but our newfound views of its south pole will help predict future solar activity.

Once it built enough speed, the spacecraft hurtled itself out of the ecliptic plane and reached a maximum viewing angle of 17 degrees below the solar equator.

Thanks to its newly tilted orbit around the Sun, the European Space Agency-led Solar Orbiter spacecraft is the first to image the Sun's poles from outside the ecliptic plane. Solar Orbiter's ...

Solar Orbiter is the first spacecraft to ever significantly shift the inclination of its heliocentric orbit beyond the ecliptic plane.

Mercury reaches its point of greatest eastern elongation on Friday (July 4), presenting an excellent opportunity to spot the ...

Bluish-white Regulus in Leo is moving toward the western horizon and sets around 10 p.m. in mid-July, followed a couple of ...

The full moon of July will appear extremely large despite being far away. This is because of a phenomenon, an illusion, that ...

Mercury will be at its most distant point from the sun in Earth’s sky on July 4, making it a good time to spot the planet in the evening sky.

During the course of a 13-second exposure, the International Space Station makes a trail of light in the sky as the station ...

Last week saw scientists celebrating a breakthrough in bowel cancer prevention. The study, by the University of Edinburgh and the Cancer Research UK Scotland Centre, uncovered bowel cancer’s ...

The arc alignment is no coincidence, because all planets orbit the sun in roughly the same plane, like a disc, known as the ecliptic or ecliptic plane.