In this paper, we continue our understanding of the stable process from the perspective of the theory of self-similar Markov processes in the spirit of [10,13]. In particular, we turn our attention to the case of d-dimensional isotropic stable process, for d ≥ 2. Using a completely new approach we consider the distribution of the point of closest reach. This leads us to a number of other substantial new results for this class of stable processes. We engage with a new radial excursion theory, never before used, from which we develop the classical Blumenthal-Getoor-Ray identities for first entry/exit into a ball, cf. [3], to the setting of n-tuple laws. We identify explicitly the stationary distribution of the stable process when reflected in its running radial supremum. Moreover, we provide a representation of the Wiener-Hopf factorisation of the MAP that underlies the stable process through the Lamperti-Kiu transform.where the two terms either side of the multiplication sign constitute the two Wiener-Hopf factors. See e.g. Chapter VI in [2] for background. Recall that if Ψ is the characteristic exponent of any Lévy process, then there exist two Bernstein functions κ andκ (see [18] for a definition) such that, up to a multiplicative constant,Identity (1.7) is what we refer to as the Wiener-Hopf factorisation. The left-hand factor codes the range of the running maximum and the right-hand factor codes the range of the running 2 infimum of ξ. It can be checked that both belong to the class of so-called beta subordinators (see [8], as well as some of the discussion later in this paper) and, in particular, have infinite activity. This implies that ξ is regular for both the upper and lower half-lines, which in turn, means that any sphere of radius r > 0 is regular for both its interior and exterior for X. This and the fact that X has càdlàg paths ensures that, denotingthe quantity X G(t) is well defined as the point of closest reach to the origin up to time t in the sense that X G(t)− = X G(t) andThe process (G(t), t ≥ 0) is monotone increasing and hence there is no problem defining G(∞) = lim t→∞ G(t) almost surely. Moreover, as X is transient in the sense of (1.3), it is also clear that, almost surely, G(∞) = G(t) for all t sufficiently large and thatOur first main result provides explicitly the law of X G(∞) .Theorem 1.1 (Point of Closest Reach to the origin). The law of the point of closest reach to the origin is given by P x (X G(∞) ∈ dy) = π −d/2 Γ (d/2) 2 Γ ((d − α)/2) Γ (α/2) (|x| 2 − |y| 2 ) α/2 |x − y| d |y| α dy, 0 < |y| < |x|.