Scientists take the first clear photo of Mars' moon Deimos
Miscellaneous / / April 25, 2023
A huge potato on the background of the Red Planet.
Al-Amal probe of the Martian mission of the United Arab Emirates allowed get an incredible shot of Deimos, the smaller and most distant moon of Mars. The device managed to fly around the satellite and approach it at a distance of 100 kilometers.
In the frame, Mars is half in shadow and visible in the background. Deimos is mostly grey, resembling potatoes, with a few well-marked craters.
The astronomers decided to exploit this approach to the fullest, using all three tools available to them - ultraviolet and infrared spectrometers, along with an imaging device. This allowed us to capture incredible details of the properties of this small moon, including information about the composition, morphology and more.
Detailed overflight results and new images will be presented in the coming days.
Deimos has an average radius of about 6.2 km and orbits Mars every 30.3 hours. The Red Planet also has another moon, Phobos. These two objects have puzzled planetary scientists for a long time. What is their origin? Were they once part of the Red Planet, how could the Moon be
part of our? Al-Amal will help answer these and many other questions.Read also🧐
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