THE FIRST RESULTS FROM SOHO

SOHO, launched by an Atlas II-AS from Cape Canaveral on 2 December 199 5, was inserted into its halo orbit around the L1 Lagrangian point on 14 February, six weeks ahead of schedule. The launch and the orbital m anoeuvres were so accurate and efficient that sufficient fuel remains on board to maintain the halo orbit for more than a decade, i.e. for a t least twice as long as originally foreseen. Already during their com missioning phase, the SOHO experiments have returned a wealth of data, impressive in terms of both its quality and diversity. Some of the im ages can be viewed via the SOHO pages (http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov) on the World Wide Web, and on the individual experiment pages, all wi th links from the SOHO home page. Typical examples of the unique resul ts being obtained with SOHO's instruments are presented here. Although they have been obtained with single instruments, it is worth noting t hat the main scientific advances from SOHO are expected to come from t he joint analysis of coordinated observations.