Berlin, Germany – The European spacecraft Hera recently captured images of Mars’s enigmatic second moon, Deimos, during its flyby of the planet on its way to two distant asteroids. The Hera probe, equipped with a suite of instruments, successfully photographed the red planet and the smaller moon, Deimos, which orbits alongside the larger moon Phobos. Traveling at speeds exceeding 20,000 miles per hour, Hera managed to snap photos of the rarely seen far side of Deimos from a distance of 620 miles.
Michael Kueppers, the mission scientist for Hera, expressed excitement about the successful usage of the instruments, noting that this was the first time they had been utilized on a small, distant moon with limited knowledge about it. Deimos, covered in dust, is gravitationally locked to Mars, always presenting the same face to the planet. The origin of this rocky moon remains uncertain, with theories suggesting it could be the result of a massive impact with Mars or a captured asteroid.
The images taken by Hera’s near-infrared Hyperscout H imager during the gravity-assist flyby showed Mars as light blue, while Deimos appeared as a dark spot near the bottom of the image. The Terra Sabaea region, a bright area near the Martian equator, along with prominent craters like Huygens and Schiaparelli, were also captured in the images. Additionally, the images showcased the vast Hellas Basin, one of the largest impact craters in the solar system.
Hera is on its way to study Dimorphos, a 150-meter-wide asteroid that orbits a larger parent body called Didymos. In a groundbreaking event in 2022, Nasa’s Dart probe successfully altered Dimorphos’s orbit through a collision. Hera’s mission to analyze Dimorphos aims to improve our understanding of how potential Earth-threatening asteroids could be deflected through such collisions, providing crucial insights into planetary defense strategies.