Hope, the United Arab Emirates space probe, has captured and shared the first high-resolution images of the far side of Mars’s moonlet, Deimos.
The 1.35-tonne space probe was launched in July 2020 and entered orbit around Mars in February 2021. Nature reported that the mission aimed to ‘study seasonal variations in the planet’s atmosphere and weather patterns.’ NewScientist also said it wanted to observe how Deimos and the other moonlet, Phobos, were formed.
‘One long-standing theory is that they are asteroids, but there are unresolved questions about their composition.’
The probe could get as close as 100 km from Deimos’s surface and capture data that had never been examined.
The observations contribute to the theory that Deimos formed with Mars rather than as an asteroid, as previously believed.
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