Martian Moon Deimo looks dark, adapted from the brightest planet Mars after him, in this visible … [+]
Mars and his less popular moon of the city, Deimos, were photographed by a spaceship on its way to study an asteroid.
The European space agency Hera mission has made history by capturing detailed images of Mars and its smaller moon, Deimo, during a flight Wednesday, March 12. Flyby, which gave the ship the ship a critical gravity assistance, will push it toward the Didymos binary system – which NASA successfully penetrated into a new orbit in September 2022 using its peanut space.
Martian Moon Deimos saw March’s face in this sequence of asteroid framing camera … [+]
Spectacular pictures-images images and gif-notes the first scientific use of its instruments beyond the earth’s moon system. They were taken from about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) on the remote side of Deimo, as seen in Mars. Like the moon, Deimos is regularly closed in March, so it shows only one side of the planet.
Martian Moon Deimos shines much brighter than the red planet beneath it in this thermal infrared … [+]
Deimos Orbits Mars every 30.3 hours at a significantly higher height than the next moon of Mars, Phobos. Unlike Phobos, who is gradually spiralizing towards Mars, Deimos is slowly leaving. Discovered in 1877 by astronomer Asaf Hall, Deimos is the smallest of the two moons of March. Measurement of 7.7 miles (12.4 kilometers) beyond, the dust -covered deimos is thought to be a residual of a giant influence on Mars or perhaps a captured asteroid.
Martian Moon Deimos saw March’s face in this sequence of infrared thermal image … [+]
Flyby is in good time. As well as being historical images, the data of Hera will help plan the Martian Moon’s exploration mission. Guided by the Japanese Airspace Research Agency and due to its start in 2026, MMX will receive measurements of both Martian moons. More exciting, it will go down to Phobos to collect a sample and turn it to the ground for analysis.
Red planet appears light blue in this HypersCout H image with infrared from ESA’s Hera … [+]
Hera the spaceship, which began in October 2023, will reach Didymos in 2026. Another important Milestone will be a series of precision burns at the end of 2026, culminating in its arrival in December of that year. Its goals are small – Didymos is 780 meters throughout, and Dimorphos is only 151 meters – many times smaller than Deimos. NASA DART -SU crashed in Dimorphos with about 15,000 miles per hour in an effort to see if it was possible to change the trajectory of an asteroid.
Hera is traveling to Didymos to measure exactly what happened and respond if – as suspected – it was a practical successful mission for future planetary defense missions.
“This has been the first exciting experience of the Hera team for exploration, but not our last,” said Ian Carnelli, mission manager Hera. “In 21 months, the spaceship will reach our target asteroids and begin our investigation into our collision site for the sole object in our solar system to have had a measurable orbit changed by human actions.”
Wishing you to cleanse the sky and wide eyes.