Main results obtained by EPD during Solar Orbiter first science orbit

Solar Orbiter is an ESA mission in collaboration with NASA that was launched in February 2020 to answer the question how the Sun creates and controls the Heliosphere. For that purpose, the spacecraft will reach an orbit with a perihelion within 0.3 au from the Sun and carries onboard a comprehensive scientific payload of ten instruments. Among them, the Energetic Particle Detector (EPD) is aimed to answer the question of how the Sun produces energetic particles that eventually fill the entire heliosphere. EPD is a suite of multiple sensors (STEP, SIS, EPT, HET), which measure particle intensities over a wide range of energies (from suprathermal up to relativistic energies) and for different species (e-, protons, and heavy ions) in different directions. Last December, Solar Orbiter initiated the nominal science phase with an orbit that carried the spacecraft to a close encounter with the Sun (0.32 au) in March 26th 2022. In this talk we will present the main EPD results obtained during this orbit and particularly at distances below 0.4 au from the Sun.