Latest news with #Dimorphos
Boston Globe
19-05-2025
- Science
- Boston Globe
Brown University researchers are developing a new way to study what's under the surface of Mars
Related : Advertisement 'But we show that the size of the ejecta blanket around a crater is sensitive to subsurface properties as well. That gives us a new observable on the surface to help constrain materials present underground.' Get Rhode Map A weekday briefing from veteran Rhode Island reporters, focused on the things that matter most in the Ocean State. Enter Email Sign Up Scientists have long studied craters for indicators of what may be below the surface of a planet. Craters can be affected by the 'strength of the subsurface, how porous it is and a host of other factors,' Brown officials said. For this latest research, however, Aleksandra Sokolowska, a UKRI fellow at Imperial College London who performed the study while a postdoctoral researcher at Brown, looked to glean more information from crater ejecta in particular, relying on computer simulations that capture the 'physics of planetary impacts' co-developed by a co-author of the study, Gareth Collins, a professor at Imperial College London. Advertisement The simulations allowed Sokolowska to vary the characteristics of subsurface material – from solid bedrock to glacial deposits and sediments such those typically found in a buried lake bed – and to observe how each could impact how far ejected debris lands when craters are formed, according to university officials. In addition to the simulation, the researchers analyzed two fresh impact craters on Mars, which, based on other data, they knew were located over solid bedrock and some subsurface ice, officials said. 'Consistent with model predictions, the crater on the icy subsurface had a much smaller ejecta blanket than the one on bedrock,' Brown officials said. 'The findings help confirm that differences in ejecta radius are detectable and reflect known subsurface properties.' According to researchers, the new method could be helpful in ongoing and upcoming spacecraft missions, including in February 2026, when the European Space Agency's Hera spacecraft is set to arrive at Dimorphos 'an asteroid that NASA hit with a projectile several years ago to test the possibility of deflecting asteroids that could be headed for Earth.' Hera will work to learn more about the asteroid's interior. Sokolowska said she is now working to turn 'this proof-of concept work into a tool.' 'The differences in ejecta radius can be quite large, and we predict that they could be measured from orbit with the HiRISE camera onboard Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter,' Sokolowska said. 'Once the method is thoroughly tested, it could become a promising new tool for investigating subsurface properties.' Christopher Gavin can be reached at
Observer
29-03-2025
- Science
- Observer
A tiny moon photobombs Mars as europe's Hera mission swoops past
An asteroid-chasing spacecraft just swung past Mars on Wednesday. As it zipped by, it took hundreds of shots of the Red Planet, as well as several snaps of Deimos, one of the two small Martian moons. The operators of the European Space Agency's Hera spacecraft were bewitched by the sci-fi aesthetics of the pictures. 'We were waiting with impatience to get these images,' said Patrick Michel, the principal investigator for Hera, during a Thursday news conference at mission control in Darmstadt, Germany. When the first shots of the moon appeared, many of the Hera team members burst into cheers. 'We've never seen Deimos in that way,' Michel said. Navigators managed to fly Hera about 600 miles above Deimos, a craggy moon just 9 miles long. The pass shows the object in remarkable detail — a small island gliding above the crater-scarred Martian desert. During the news conference, Ian Carnelli, the Hera project manager, was misty-eyed. 'I'm going to get emotional,' he said. 'The excitement was such that we didn't get any sleep.' Hera was using Mars in what is known as a gravity assist, both accelerating the spacecraft and adjusting its flight path. But its mission operators also wanted to take advantage of the Martian flyby and use it to test the mechanical eyes that will allow Hera to study the asteroid it is targeting, Dimorphos. In the coming days, the mission's scientists will reveal more photographs from Hera's encounter with Mars, which may include shots of Phobos, the planet's other moon. As with any planetary flyby, there were some nerves about whether Hera would conduct its manoeuvres properly and end up on the right trajectory. 'The spacecraft behaved very well,' said Sylvain Lodiot, the Hera operations manager. 'We're on track to the asteroid system.' Hera is headed to Dimorphos as a follow-up to a 2022 Nasa mission, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test. DART deliberately crashed a spacecraft into that asteroid, aiming to change its orbit around a larger asteroid, Didymos. That was a test of whether a dangerous space rock bound for Earth could be deflected in a similar manner. The experiment successfully changed the orbit of Dimorphos. But the asteroid's physical nature, and its full response to DART's collision, remains unclear; some evidence suggests that it acted like a fluid when hit, rather than a solid, causing it to eject a lot of debris and reshape itself. — NYT
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
European spacecraft got rare close-up of Mars' lesser-known moon
A European spacecraft on a journey to study NASA's asteroid crash site did a quick pop-in of Mars on its way, capturing unprecedented images of Mars' lesser-known moon, Deimos. Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos, but scientists know relatively little about them, especially the smaller one, Deimos. Nearly all of the images they have of it were taken from the Martian surface by rovers, and because the moon is tidally locked — meaning one full spin matches the amount of time it takes to complete its orbit of Mars — only one side has been seen on the Red Planet. The Hera mission spacecraft captured views of the moon's far side, swinging within 625 miles of Deimos in space. While the car-sized spacecraft flew around the Mars system, flight controllers on Earth temporarily lost communication with Hera because the signal was blocked. Though the blackout was planned for the maneuver, Ian Carnelli, the European Space Agency's Hera mission manager, said it was deeply emotional. "I was almost in tears. I mean, I know probably this is normal for a flight for spacecraft operators, but every time we lose contact with a spacecraft, I'm super nervous," he said during a webcast following the flyby. "Then I was running to the room where the scientists were [watching for images], and as soon as I opened the door, they were screaming — really screaming." SEE ALSO: Scientists found huge beaches on Mars likely from a long gone ocean Among those scientists was one of the co-founders of Queen. When Brian May isn't playing guitar riffs, he is an astrophysicist. As part of Hera's science team, May brings his expertise in stereoscopic imaging. That means he helps decipher complex scientific data into 3D pictures. During a webcast on Thursday, May described some of the topographical details of the moon already brought to life through the raw data. A depression in the city-sized moon was visible, a feature May described as a "saddle" on the left side and some little craters at the bottom. "You feel like you're there, and you see the whole scene in front of you," he said. "The science that we get from this is colossal, and I think we're all like children." Hera launched in October 2024 and will rendezvous with Dimorphos, an asteroid previously slammed by a NASA spacecraft, in 2026. Back in 2022, NASA deliberately crashed a spacecraft into a harmless asteroid to practice thwarting a space rock, should a hazardous one ever be on a collision course with Earth. The European Space Agency is providing a follow-up to that test. Deimos, one of Mars' two moons, is eight miles wide and orbits about 14,600 miles away from the Red Planet. Credit: ESA The flyby of Mars and Deimos wasn't a detour but a necessary maneuver to put the spacecraft on the right trajectory toward its ultimate destination. Swinging within 3,100 miles of Mars, Hera used its gravity to adjust its course. Scientists would like to understand where Deimos and its partner Phobos came from — whether they were once asteroids captured in orbit around Mars or are chunks of the planet itself, blown out by a giant impact. The new data may help them figure out the moon's origin. During the flyby, three instruments were used: a black-and-white navigation camera that takes pictures in visible light; a hyperspectral imager that can help discern an object's mineral composition; and a thermal infrared imager supplied by the Japanese space agency, JAXA, which can help characterize the texture and density of the material. Overall, thousands of images were collected, and the Hera team is still processing them. At the top of this story is an infrared photo of Deimos, backdropped by Mars. The Red Planet appears pale blue because the sun is shining on it. Its contribution to this scene would need to be removed for the colors to appear closer to how they would really look to our eyes. A thermal camera on the Hera spacecraft took images that will help scientists characterize the texture and density of the material that makes up Deimos. Credit: ESA / JAXA Near the top of the image is the bright Terra Sabaea region, close to the Martian equator. At the bottom right of the region is the Huygen crater, and to its left is the Schiaparelli crater. At the bottom right of the planet is Hellas Basin, one of the largest known craters in the solar system. In a little less than two years, Hera will reach the target asteroids from NASA's DART mission to begin a crash investigation.
New York Times
14-03-2025
- Science
- New York Times
Mars Gets a Close-Up and a Photo Bomb as Europe's Hera Mission Swoops Past
An asteroid-chasing spacecraft just swung past Mars on Wednesday. As it zipped by, it took hundreds of shots of the Red Planet, as well as several snaps of Deimos, one of the two small Martian moons. The operators of the European Space Agency's Hera spacecraft were bewitched by the sci-fi aesthetics of the pictures. 'We were waiting with impatience to get these images,' said Patrick Michel, the principal investigator for Hera, during a Thursday news conference at mission control in Darmstadt, Germany. When the first shots of the moon appeared, many of the Hera team members burst into cheers. 'We've never seen Deimos in that way,' Dr. Michel said. Navigators managed to fly Hera about 600 miles above Deimos, a craggy moon just nine miles long. The pass shows the object in remarkable detail — a small island gliding above the crater-scarred Martian desert. During the news conference, Ian Carnelli, the Hera project manager, was misty-eyed. 'I'm going to get emotional,' he said. 'The excitement was such that we didn't get any sleep.' Hera was using Mars in what is known as a gravity assist, both accelerating the spacecraft and adjusting its flight path. But its mission operators also wanted to take advantage of the Martian flyby and use it to test the mechanical eyes that will allow Hera to study the asteroid it is targeting, Dimorphos. In the coming days, the mission's scientists will reveal more photographs from Hera's encounter with Mars, which may include shots of Phobos, the planet's other moon. As with any planetary flyby, there were some nerves about whether Hera would conduct its maneuvers properly and end up on the right trajectory. 'The spacecraft behaved very well,' said Sylvain Lodiot, the Hera operations manager. 'We're on track to the asteroid system.' Hera is headed to Dimorphos as a follow-up to a 2022 NASA mission, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test. DART deliberately crashed a spacecraft into that asteroid, aiming to change its orbit around a larger asteroid, Didymos. That was a test of whether a dangerous space rock bound for Earth could be deflected in a similar manner. The experiment successfully changed the orbit of Dimorphos. But the asteroid's physical nature, and its full response to DART's collision, remains unclear; some evidence suggests that it acted like a fluid when hit, rather than a solid, causing it to eject a lot of debris and reshape itself. When it comes to stopping lethal asteroids from striking Earth, the more scientists know about their rocky enemies, the better prepared they will be should one come careening our way. To aid that effort, the European Hera mission will arrive at Dimorphos in late 2026 for a close-up study of the DART-impacted asteroid. This Wednesday, during Hera's flyby of Mars and Deimos, the spacecraft used three cameras — including a thermal infrared imager supplied by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Mars's two moons have mysterious origins. Both could be pieces of a disintegrating asteroid captured by the planet's gravity, or perhaps the flotsam and jetsam leftover from a giant impact event on Mars. Deimos is tidally locked, meaning one hemisphere permanently faces Mars. This near side is the one most commonly seen by spacecraft orbiting the planet, or by rovers driving across its surface. Hera managed to fly behind Deimos, meaning it caught a rare sight. 'It's one of the very few images we have of the far side of Deimos,' said Stephan Ulamec, a researcher at the German Aerospace Center and member of the Hera team. This opportunistic peek at Mars and Deimos was exciting. But the team is especially thrilled that Hera is now on its way to its asteroid destination. 'We're all looking forward to what Didymos and Dimorphos will look like,' Dr. Michel said.
Express Tribune
14-03-2025
- Science
- Express Tribune
Asteroid probe snaps rare pics of Martian moon
This handout photograph released by the European Space Agency shows the surface of Mars and the face of Deimos. Photo: AFP On the way to investigate the scene of a historic asteroid collision, a European spacecraft swung by Mars and captured rare images of the red planet's mysterious small moon Deimos, the European Space Agency (ESA) said Thursday. Europe's HERA mission is aiming to find out how much of an impact a NASA spacecraft made when it deliberately smashed into an asteroid in 2022 in the first-ever test of our planetary defences. But HERA will not reach the asteroid -- which is 11 million kilometres (seven million miles) from Earth in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter -- until late 2026. On the long voyage there, the spacecraft slingshotted around Mars on Wednesday. The spacecraft used the planet's gravity to get a "kick" that also changed its direction and saved fuel, mission analyst Pablo Munoz told a press conference. For an hour, HERA flew as close as 5,600 kilometres from the Martian surface, at a speed of 33,480 kilometres an hour. It used the opportunity to test some of its scientific instruments, snapping around 600 pictures, including rare ones of Deimos. The lumpy, 12.5 kilometre-wide moon is the smaller and less well-known of the two moons of Mars. Exactly how Deimos and the bigger Phobos were formed remains a matter of debate. Some scientists believe they were once asteroids that were captured in the gravity of Mars, while others think they could have been shot from a massive impact on the surface. The new images add "another piece of the puzzle" to efforts to determine their origin, Marcel Popescu of the Astronomical Institute of the Romanian Academy said. There are hopes that data from HERA's "HyperScout" and thermal infrared imagers -- which observe colours beyond the limits of the human eye -- will shed light on this mystery by discovering more about the moon's composition. Those infrared imagers are why the red planet appears blue in some of the photos. Next, HERA will turn its focus back to the asteroid Dimorphos. When NASA's DART mission smashed into Dimorphos in 2022, it shortened the 160-metre-wide asteroid's orbit around its big brother Didymos by 33 minutes.
