2023-04-24 15:36:59
Mars has two moons, the smaller one is called “Deimos” and is being inspected by the United Arab Emirates’ space probe “Hope”. According to spectral analyses, its material probably comes from the mother planet. According to researchers from the Emirates Space Mission (EMM) at the General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) in Vienna, “Deimos” is not an asteroid captured by Mars, as previously assumed, but rather a part of it that was knocked out in an impact.
The space probe Hope was sent on a journey to Mars on July 19, 2020 by the Japanese space center “Tanegashima Space Center” and has been orbiting it since February 2021. It repeatedly flies close to the Martian moon “Deimos”, reported Hessa Al Matroushi, the scientific director the EMM. With “small navigational maneuvers” it would have been possible for all measuring instruments to look in his direction on March 10, 2023, when Hope passed him only 100 kilometers away.
“Deimos” orbits Mars in a circular orbit with a radius of 23,500 kilometers, which takes 30 hours each time. Like Earth’s moon, “Deimos” has a locked rotation, which means it always turns the same side toward Mars. According to current theory, it would be an asteroid captured by the planet.
According to Christopher Edwards from the Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science at Northern Arizona University (USA), who analyzed the data from Hope’s “Emirates Mars Infrared Spectrometer” (EMIRS ) analyzed: “The infrared properties of this body are much more similar to those of basaltic Mars than of D-type asteroids, which are often used as analogues to spectral properties of ‘Deimos'”. The EMIRS data also showed that the Martian moon does not have a coarse-grained, blocky surface like such asteroids, but rather is covered with very fine particles, like Earth’s moon.
The UV spectra recorded by the “Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer” (EMUS) also lead the researchers to assume that “Deimos” is not a former asteroid, according to Justin Deigan from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder (USA). They indicate that there are hardly any organic or carbonaceous minerals there, as would be the case with these. “So Demios is probably descended from Mars itself,” Edwards said. “We believe it was detached from it by a gigantic impact.”
Hope will continue to study Deimos in a “flyby campaign” with its three instruments, the researchers say: the Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EMUS), alongside EMIRS, which analyzes radiation emitted from the surface which one can detect gases, for example, is the high-resolution “Emirates Exploration Imager” camera (EXI). However, the main goal of the mission is still to analyze the atmosphere of the planet itself for a full Martian year, explained Al Matroushi. Among other things, one wants to study the weather systems in the lower layers, but also the properties of the higher atmosphere. The space agency of the United Arab Emirates (UAE Space Agency) has extended the Mars mission by one year.
According to the Austria Center Vienna (ACV), the habit of holding the General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) in Vienna has also been extended until 2030. “In addition to the great economic importance, this is also good news for the science location: internationally relevant Topics such as climate change and resource protection will also be prominently discussed in Vienna in the future,” the organizers explain in a broadcast: “There are currently more than 10,000 international geoscientists in Vienna once more.”
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