The first image of Mars taken by the Al Amal, or Hope, spacecraft. The photo was taken at a distance of 15,500 miles from Earth’s surface.
Emirates Mars Mission / Mohamed Bin Zayed
Mars is the place to be this monthTwo spacecraft have already entered orbit around the red planet: China’s Tianwen-1 arrived there on February 10 and, the day before, the United Arab Emirates made history, slide the Al Amal (Hope) spacecraft into orbit around Mars and become only the fifth land to reach the dusty, barren neighbor of the earth.
The very first Arabian interplanetary mission has so far taken a few photos of Mars during its journey, but nothing quite like what it got on Sunday. From a distance of about 15,000 miles, the probe’s camera – officially known as the Emirates eXploration Imager (EXI) – captured a scenic image of Mars as a yellowed semicircle against the black curtain of space.
Some of the most famous features of Mars are visible in the image. Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the solar system, faces the terminator, where the sunlight fades, while the three volcanoes of the Tharsis Montes dazzle under a dust free sky.
Olympus Mons is barely visible at the terminator, where night and day converge. It is circled in red here.
Emirates Mars Mission
The photo was shared in a tweet by Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s factor ruler. “The broadcast of the Hope Probe’s first image of Mars is a defining moment in our history and marks the UAE’s entry into advanced countries involved in space exploration,” he tweeted on Sunday.
The Hope Probe’s broadcast of the first image of Mars is a defining moment in our history, marking the UAE’s entry into advanced countries involved in space exploration. We hope this mission will lead to new discoveries about Mars that will benefit humanity. pic.twitter.com/TCM5yHTapH
– Mohammed bin Zayed (@MohamedBinZayed) February 14, 2021
The Al Amal mission hopes to provide the most complete picture of Mars’ atmosphere to date. The range of instruments includes EXI and both an ultraviolet and infrared spectrometer. Detailed observations will allow researchers to determine how particles escape Martian gravity and reveal the mechanisms of global circulation in the lower atmosphere.
You can find previous images of the Hope probe on the Emirates Mars Mission website.
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