Artist Melanie King and solar physicist Lucie Green describe how they collaborated on the creation of an artwork inspired by Solar Orbiter, an ESA-led mission to capture solar images from closer than any spacecraft ever before and, for the first time, examine the Sun’s uncharted polar regions. Solar Orbiter is the most complex scientific laboratory ever to have been sent to the Sun. Launched in February 2020, it is due to start scientific operations in November and to approach as close as 42 million kilometres to our nearest star.