A British-built spacecraft has captured the first ever images of the Sun's south pole.

The Hertfordshire-made Solar Orbiter spacecraft has manoeuvered into a "tilted orbit" 17 degrees below the solar equator, providing humanity with its inaugural view of the never-before-seen region.

"Today we reveal humankind's first-ever views of the Sun's pole," Professor Carole Mundell, director of science at the European Space Agency, said.

The remarkable feat was impossible until now, as Earth and all previous spacecraft have orbited within a flat disc around the Sun's equator.

'Today we reveal humankind's first-ever views of the Sun's pole,' ESA's Prof Carole Mundell said. Pictured are eight views of the sun's south pole from the Agency

But the Solar Orbiter - a joint ESA-Nasa mission, with a craft made by Airbus in Stevenage and launched from Florida's Cape Canaveral - has done it.

At the pole, scientists have made a striking discovery: Our star's magnetic fields are in complete disarray.

The observations show that magnetic fields with both north and south polarities are present at the south pole at the same time - differing markedly from a magnet's clear north and south poles.

The finding marks one of the first scientific breakthroughs from Solar Orbiter's polar observations.

"We didn't know what exactly to expect from these first observations - the Sun's poles are literally terra incognita," said Professor Sami Solanki, director of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany.

The Solar Orbiter has found that magnetic fields with both north and south polarities are present at the south pole at the same time

The spacecraft's mission carries vital importance for protecting Earth's infrastructure from solar storms.

The UK Government has placed space weather on its National Risk Register, recognising the serious threat posed by solar flares to modern power systems.

Historical data reveals that severe magnetic storms have struck 42 times in the past 150 years, whilst great super-storms occur six times per 150 years.

A 1989 geomagnetic storm left six million Canadians without power.

"The Sun is our nearest star, giver of life and potential disruptor of modern space and ground power systems, so it is imperative that we understand how it works and learn to predict its behaviour," Prof Mundell explained.

The British-built space probe blasted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral (file photo)

The Solar Orbiter's journey has only just begun, with plans to tilt its orbit even further in the coming years.

This will provide increasingly better views of the Sun's polar regions, offering scientists unprecedented opportunities to study these mysterious areas.

"This is just the first step of Solar Orbiter's 'stairway to heaven'," said Daniel Muller, ESA's Solar Orbiter project scientist.

"In the coming years, the spacecraft will climb further out of the ecliptic plane for ever better views of the Sun's polar regions."