Unprecedented images of mysterious Mars moon captured by space probe

A space probe flying past Mars captured images of the red planet's small, mysterious moon.

The space probe, named Hera, was launched on Oct. 7, 2024, and is on a mission to gather close-up data about the Dimorphos asteroid, the European Space Agency said in a news release. The asteroid was the first to have its orbit altered by human action, when it was impacted by NASA's DART spacecraft in 2022. The goal of Hera is to learn more about asteroid deflection so the technique can be refined and used again.

While on a flyby of Mars, Hera was able to use three of its imaging instruments to capture images of Deimos, the smaller of Mars' two moons, the ESA said. Deimos is about 15,000 miles from Mars. Scientists have previously speculated that it may actually be a piece of asteroid, not a moon.

Hera got as close as 1,000 kilometers, or about 620 miles, to Deimos. It used its various instruments to capture the images, characterize the mineral makeup on the moon and chart surface temperatures. These features combined will help scientists learn more about the lunar body, the ESA said.

"These instruments have been tried out before, during Hera's departure from Earth, but this is the first time that we have employed them on a small distant moon for which we still lack knowledge – demonstrating their excellent performance in the process," ESA Hera mission scientist Michael Kueppers said in the news release.

The ESA's Mars Express, which has been orbiting the red planet for over 20 years, also contributed observations of the moon. Results from the encounter should help guide operational planning for a mission set to explore Martian moons in 2026, the ESA said. That mission, in conjunction with NASA and French and German space agencies, will collect detailed measurements of Mars' two moons and land on Phobos, the larger lunar body, to collect a sample that can be returned to Earth for analysis.

Hera also used the flyby of Mars to adjust its trajectory through deep space. That maneuver shortened Hera's travel time to Dimorphos, the ESA said. Hera will also collect information about Didymos, the asteroid that Dimorphos orbits around. Hera is expected to reach the Didymos in December 2026, the ESA said.

"This has been the Hera team's first exciting experience of exploration, but not our last," said Hera mission manager Ian Carnelli in the news release. "In 21 months the spacecraft will reach our target asteroids, and start our crash site investigation of the only object in our Solar System to have had its orbit measurably altered by human action."

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