Pics: UAE's Hope makes closest flyby to Mars' moonlet Deimos since Viking mission in 1977
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An Arab nation's first interplanetary exploration has become the closest to fly near Mars' moonlet 'Deimos' in almost half a century.
The UAE Space Agency's Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) saw their spacecraft Amal, known as Hope, take the first high-resolution and most-detailed pictures of the far side of Deimos. According to a release, the observations substantiate the theory that Deimos formed along with Mar and has a planetary origin as opposed to being an asteroid caught in the planet's orbit.
"We are unsure of the origins of both Phobos and Deimos," Hessa Al Matroushi, EMM Science Lead, said in a statement. "One long-standing theory is that they are captured asteroids, but there are unresolved questions about their composition.
How exactly they came to be in their current orbits is also an active area of study, and so any new information we can gain on the two moons, especially the more rarely observed Deimos, has the potential to unlock new understanding of Mars’ satellites. Our close observations of Deimos so far point to a planetary origin rather than reflecting the composition of a type D asteroid as has been postulated."
The ground-breaking observations of Deimos were shared on Monday during a special session at the Union (EGU) General Assembly in Vienna. Hope employed all three of its science instruments to capture Mars' "most mysterious" moon and its companion Phobos.
The United Arab Emirates' biggest Hope delivered
Hope also made the first observations in the extreme and far ultraviolet, and the first well-resolved hyperspectral data of Deimos in the thermal infrared. Regions on the far side of Deimos have never been compositionally investigated, so the images were the first to peek into the mysterious land. The closest flybys saw Hope pass approximately 62 miles (100 km) from Deimos, the closest approach made by a spacecraft to Mars’ smaller moon since the Viking mission in 1977.
Both Deimos and Phobos were discovered via telescope in the 19th century, but a detailed study could be carried out only during the Space Age. And among both, being smaller and orbiting in a wider orbit that completes every 30 hours, Deimos is less observed.
However, the large orbit occupied by Hope around Mars, enabled the opportunity to study Deimos in high detail.
The UAE Space Agency has confirmed the extension of EMM's mission for one more year. And currently, Hope is following its planned 20,000–43,000 km elliptical science orbit, "with an inclination to Mars of 25 degrees, incorporating subtle changes to support its additional Deimos observations", the release said.
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