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The first released images from the SMILE spacecraft show ultraviolet auroras circling Earth’s North Pole—not a conventional photograph of the planet or an X-ray picture of its magnetic shield. Recorded on 24 July 2026, the footage captures activity around the full northern auroral oval, including its sunlit side, where daylight usually makes auroras difficult to see from the ground.
What SMILE’s first images actually show
The footage comes from UVI, SMILE’s ultraviolet imager. It shows auroral activity around the complete northern ring after a disturbance in Earth’s magnetic field associated with a rush of solar-wind particles. ESA described it as the first time since 2008 that a camera had captured the complete northern auroral ring in ultraviolet light. UVI can record auroras for up to 45 hours at a time, according to ESA’s 30 September 2026 mission update.
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Seeing the dayside matters because sunlight overwhelms the aurora’s visible glow for observers on the ground. From orbit, UVI can image the oval across both its dayside and nightside. The published graphic described by Space.com on 2 October 2026 carries an important qualification: its background was added in Canva Pro. That note applies to the published graphic, not necessarily to the underlying instrument footage.
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“First photos” also refers to a release containing more than the auroral footage. SMILE’s soft X-ray imager (SXI) produced images during instrument checks, but ESA says the published SXI images show the aftermath of a distant exploded star—not Earth’s magnetic boundary.
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What SMILE is designed to investigate
SMILE stands for Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer. It is a joint mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), built to study how the solar wind—a stream of charged particles from the Sun—interacts with Earth’s magnetic environment. Those interactions are connected to auroras, geomagnetic storms and space weather. ESA describes the mission and its aims on its SMILE mission page and in its mission factsheet.
The spacecraft launched on 19 May 2026, reached its target science orbit on 20 June, and was declared ready for science operations on 23 September, according to ESA’s 30 September update. The mission combines remote imaging with measurements taken in the surrounding space so scientists can build a broader picture of the Sun–Earth interaction.
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Four instruments, different jobs
| Instrument | What it measures or images |
|---|---|
| UVI | Ultraviolet images of the auroral oval around Earth. |
| SXI | Soft X-ray images intended to reveal where the solar wind interacts with Earth’s magnetic environment. |
| MAG | Magnetic-field measurements. |
| LIA | Measurements from a light ion analyser. |
The instruments are complementary: UVI shows the aurora, SXI is intended to image the interaction region, and MAG and LIA provide in-situ measurements. Together, they are meant to connect what happens around Earth with the conditions measured in space.
ESA and CAS share mission responsibilities
ESA provides the payload module, launch vehicle and SXI instrument, contributes to UVI and mission operations, and supports the partnership with CAS. CAS provides the spacecraft platform and three of the four instruments, and is responsible for operating the spacecraft in orbit, according to ESA’s mission information.
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ESA’s factsheet, whose publication date is not shown in the retrieved page text, lists a nominal mission lifetime of three years, an orbit reaching about 121,000 km above the North Pole at its far end, and a scientific consortium of more than 250 scientists.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why the direct X-ray view of Earth was still pending
The auroral release is not the long-awaited soft X-ray view of Earth’s magnetic boundary. ESA reported on 30 September 2026 that SXI had been switched on and had taken its first images, but Earth-pointed observations contained too much unwanted stray light. Teams were adjusting instrument settings and implementing software updates. ESA expected the stray light to reach a minimum in mid-October, when SXI could attempt its first good image of either the magnetopause—the region where the solar wind meets Earth’s magnetic field—or the northern polar cusp.
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So, as of that ESA update, the direct Earth-directed image of the magnetopause or polar cusp remained a future target. The first useful SXI images released instead showed a distant supernova remnant. The striking auroral footage is a real early science result, but it should not be described as an X-ray image of Earth’s magnetic shield.
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