2023-04-24 19:10:28
– / AFP
This composite image released by the Emirates Mars Mission on April 24, 2023 shows the Mars moon Deimos in the foreground, observable for the first time in such detail.
SPACE – No need to search the other end of the galaxy to discover new images. The United Arab Emirates’ Mars space probe, which has been orbiting the red planet for two years, has observed its small moon Deimos with unparalleled precision, shedding new light on the origins of this mysterious Mars satellite.
The probe «Al-Amal» or « Hope » (” Hope “ in French), the first Arab interplanetary mission, was able to fly within 110 km of Deimos, an irregular rocky body of barely 12 km in the shape of a bean which, together with its larger companion Phobos, is one of the two moons Of March.
It is the first time since the Mars mission Viking in 1977 that a spacecraft has flown so closely over this rarely observed natural satellite, officials said on Monday. “Mission Mars of the Emirates” (Emirates Mars Mission, EMM) during the assembly of the European Geosciences Union taking place in Vienna.
Deimos as seen by NASA Viking 2 around Mars.
Full size: https://t.co/uNX4q7tWLV
#NASA #Viking2… https://t.co/dq06yPQWhI
— Andrea Luck (@andrluck)
Understand the origin of the Martian satellite
During the overflights of Deimos, which started last January, Hope was able to conduct observations of unparalleled precision, in particular thanks to its EXI camera which provides high-resolution color images in several wavelengths. These data revealed the ” dark side “ of the small moon which orbits about 23,000 km from Mars, and whose composition has never been studied.
“We are uncertain of the origins of Phobos and Deimos”explained Hessa Al Matroushi, the scientific manager of the EMM mission, in a press release.
“A long-held theory is that they are asteroids” from the asteroid belt that would have been “captured” in the orbit of the red planet, she developed.
But the close observations of the probe « Hope » rather lean towards a planetary origin. Like its companion Phobos, the celestial body indeed has “closer infrared properties of basalt rocks on Mars than those of the meteorite that fell near Tagish Lake” au Canada, “often used by analogy to study Phobos and Deimos”according to Christopher Edwards, scientist of the EMIRS instrument.
Martian Mission Extended
Emirati Prime Minister Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum tweeted the image of Deimos. The probe, he writes, shows that the moon was part of Mars from which it left. “separated millions of years ago”.
In a new global precedent … the Emirates Mars Exploration Project, the “Probe of Hope”, is approaching 100 km from the Mars moon, “D… https://t.co/UgbF2m7hLq
— HH Sheikh Mohammed (@HHShkMohd)
« Hope » will continue its flybys of Deimos throughout the year 2023 to collect more data, specifies the space agency of the United Arab Emirates, which has decided to extend the Martian mission for an additional year.
In February 2021, the United Arab Emirates placed its probe « Hope » orbiting Mars, becoming the first Arab country to achieve such a feat. The wealthy Gulf country also plans to send an unmanned rover to the moon by 2024.
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