The Red Planet’s natural satellite, Deimos, may appear massive at first glance, but its diameter measures a mere 12 kilometers. Recently, the Hope Probe belonging to the United Arab Emirates has been orbiting Mars for two years. The spacecraft sent an exceptional photo of Deimos and disclosed its origin.
Mars’ Deimos and Phobos are its two natural satellites. Deimos, the one farthest from the planet, orbits it every 30.3 hours, and we only have a few photographs of it, with the Viking Probe taking pictures several decades ago. Nonetheless, none of the images match the exceptional quality of the one provided by the Hope Probe of the United Arab Emirates, which reveals a shocking surprise to be disclosed in the coming hours.
The mystery of the moon Deimos of Mars
The United Arab Emirates Hope probe reached Mars in 2021, slightly before NASA’s Perseverance. Shortly after arriving he sent a spectacular image of the planet, and its 14,000 meter high volcanoes.
It will orbit Mars for several years at a distance of about 25,000 kilometers, without actually landing on the planet. It’s a much wider orbit than other probes, which come much closer to take images of its surface.
Hope does not intend to study its geography, but its weather as well as the presence of water, ozone, and other compounds in the atmosphere of Mars.
Last summer, the Hope Probe charted a new course to approach Deimos, a moon of Mars, at an unprecedented distance of merely 100 kilometers. This led to the capture of a breathtaking photograph showcased in the opening image of this news article or in the tweet below. However, the significance of this achievement goes beyond photography. The probe also scanned Deimos using ultraviolet and infrared spectrometers, which, according to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum on his Twitter account, unveiled the moon’s origin.
Previously, owing to its small size, Deimos was believed to be an asteroid captured by the gravitational pull of Mars. But the sheikh and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates asserted in his earlier tweet that Deimos is a constituent of Mars. We conjecture that it was separated from the planet as a result of some impact, similar to the detachment of our own moon.
The Hope probe of United Arab Emirates has sent us the sharper photo of the moon deimos of Marsand claims to have discovered its origin. Space is no longer just a matter of the United States, Russia or China.
