The UAE Mars mission captures the clearest and most detailed image of Mars’ moon Deimos, challenging long standing theories
The most in-depth images ever acquired of the planet’s Deimos moon were taken by the UAE Mars mission. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, revealed the breath-taking images that were captured by the UAE Space Agency approximately 100 km near the surface of the Mars moon. The breath-taking photo was captured by UAE scientists using the Hope Probe from the Emirates Mars Mission. Sheikh Mohammed, the leader of the UAE Mars project, posted the image on social media along with the statement, “The Emirates Mars Mission’s Hope Probe has captured the clearest image of Mars’ moon Deimos, which is 100km away, marking a global first.”Deimos was previously thought to be an outlying asteroid caught in Martian orbit. Nevertheless, the Hope Probe’s tools and team have shown that the moon was once a part of Mars and separated from it millions of years ago, much like Earth’s moon.
The first space mission launched by an Arab country is the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM). Using all three of its research equipment, it revealed a series of original and ground-breaking observations of the smaller Mars moon, Deimos, to expand our fundamental understanding of the most enigmatic moon on the Red Planet and its larger cousin, Phobos.
The recent discoveries refute the conventional wisdom that the moons of Mars are captured asteroids and suggest that they have a planetary origin. The findings reveal brand-new details on the structure and nature of Deimos. These include the first-ever observations obtained in the extreme and far ultraviolet as well as the first well-resolved hyper spectral data of Deimos in the thermal infrared. They also feature high resolution photographs captured during the closest repeated flybys of the moon.
The observations make it possible to see parts of Deimos’ far side for the first time that have never had their composition studied. Hope flew by Deimos at its closest distance of about 100 km. Phobos and Deimos’ origins are unknown, according to Hessa Al Matroushi, the EMM Science Lead. “A long-standing view holds that they are asteroids that have been captured, although there are unanswered concerns regarding their make-up. Any new knowledge we can gather about the two moons, especially the less frequently observed Deimos, has the potential to open up new understanding of Mars’ satellites because how precisely they came to be in their current orbits is an active topic of research.
