Images and scientific results
from hope probe
Title
The Image from the EMUS Instrument
Date
May 10th 2021
Instruments
Emirates Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EMUS)
Description
This image was acquired by the EMUS instrument on 10 May 2021 and shows sunlight reflecting off the extended cloud of atomic hydrogen gas that surrounds the planet Mars, which is visible in the center only as a dark disk hidden deep inside the fog of gas.
The atomic hydrogen is formed by sunlight splitting water in the lower atmosphere, which then diffuses to the upper atmosphere and escapes to space. The hydrogen is thickest close to Mars, circling the planet with a bright ring of light, and becomes thinner and dimmer further away, with altitudes over 20,000 km observed in this image. The full range of the image is too large for the instrument to view all at once, so it performed four separate scans across the planet, which have been overlaid in the asterisk pattern shown here to form a single image, with areas in black showing where no data was taken. The EMM spacecraft is the only mission at Mars capable of making this type of image, thanks to its high-altitude orbit (20,000 km x 43,000 km).
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Title
Atmospheric and Surface Temperature of Mars
Date
March 5th 2021
Instruments
Emirates Mars InfraRed Spectrometer (EMIRS)
Description
This EMIRS image was acquired on March 5th, 2021 from an altitude of ~15,000 km. In the surface temperature image (bottom), centered on the Tharsis region of Mars, dawn can be seen towards the right side.
The low surface temperatures observed are due to the dusty nature of the martian surface. An elevated nighttime atmospheric temperature at 25 km altitude (top) is also observed over the Tharsis region.
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Title
The Colored Image from the Emirates Exploration Imager
Date
April 22nd 2021
Instruments
Emirates Exploration Imager
Description
The colored image from Emirates Exploration Imager (EXI) was generated using the camera’s red (635 nm) and ultraviolet (320 nm) filters. The red channel clearly shows the dark and light features of the Martian surface, while the water ice clouds stand out in the ultraviolet channel.
The image was acquired on April 22, 2021, at a solar longitude of ~35°, which is spring in the northern hemisphere. Of note is the northern polar cap, likely beginning its retreat as the temperatures rise, with distinct clouds encircling it.
Also visible along the terminator and eastern edge is a thin cloud layer as well as fairly continuous cloud cover to the west of Acidalia Planitia — the darker region at the upper center of the image. This composite image highlights the type of data that EXI will be routinely collecting now that the science phase of EMM’s mission has started.
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Title
Images from the Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer
Date
April 25th 2021
Instruments
The Emirates Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EMUS)
Description
The Emirates Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EMUS) took images of atomic hydrogen surrounding Mars on 24 & 25 April 2021 after transitioning to the Science Orbit. EMM is the first mission at any planet that is able to make images from different points of view over the course of a day.
During the 10 hours 34 minutes between the images, the Hope probe moved from being over the planet near noon and viewing the entire dayside (top) to being over the planet at dusk and seeing both the day and night side (bottom).
These images will be used to reconstruct the 3D distribution of hydrogen and learn more about its production through the process of splitting water molecules by sunlight and its eventual escape to space.
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Title
The Emirates eXploration Imager (EXI) captured a monochromatic image of the Cerberus Fossae
Date
March 15th 2021
Instruments
Emirates eXploration Imager (EXI)
Description
On 15 March 2021, the Emirates eXploration Imager (EXI) captured a monochromatic image of the Cerberus Fossae, a fracture system that stretches for more than 1,000 km across the Martian surface, with a spatial scale of approximately 180 meters/pixel.
The Emirates Mars Mission transitioned from the capture orbit to its science orbit with the successful completion of a 510-second burn of its thrusters. The Hope Probe is now in its final orbit of Mars and ready for its two-year science data gathering – the core aim of the mission. The science phase will commence on 14 April 2021.
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Title
View of Olympus Mons on Mars the tallest volcano in the solar system
Date
February 26th 2021
Instruments
Emirates eXploration Imager (EXI)
Description
The Emirates eXploration Imager (EXI) captured this view of Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano in the solar system, at 9:33 UTC on February 26th from an altitude of 13,007 km. North is towards the top right of the image. The colour is created from a composite of the red, green and blue EXI images.
The summit of Olympus Mons is 21 km above the Mars global datum (zero level elevation). For perspective, that is about two and a half times the height of Mount Everest above sea level. Olympus Mons is the youngest of the large volcanoes on Mars forming during the Hesperian Period (~3,700 to ~3,000 million years ago), which roughly corresponds to the Archean Period on Earth. It was likely built by thousands of highly fluid basaltic lava flows over long periods of time.
On Earth, the shield volcanoes of the Hawaiian Islands have been used as an analog for understanding the volcanic processes that created Olympus Mons and other shield volcanoes on Mars, albeit on a much smaller scale.
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Title
Thermal infrared images of Mars showing the surface and atmospheric temperatures
Date
February 20th 2021
Instruments
Emirates Mars InfraRed Spectrometer (EMIRS)
Description
The Emirates Mars InfraRed Spectrometer (EMIRS), measures the thermal infrared energy emitted from the surface (surface temperature, top row) and its interaction with the atmosphere (temperatures at ~25 km altitude, bottom row).
The first of many such images from EMIRS captured mostly the Martian nightside (purple-green-blue hues), though dawn can be seen on the right-hand side of the surface temperature image (red hues).
Features such as Arabia Terra (low thermal inertia and thus cold night-time temperatures) can be observed in the upper left portion of the surface temperature data.
EMIRS measurement footprints were mapped to the planet, colourised by temperature, and overlain on a Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) shaded relief map (right column). Data between footprints were also interpolated, colourised, and overlain on MOLA shaded relief to form a continuous image (left column).
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Title
False colour images of Mars captured at different ultraviolet wavelengths providing unique information about the Martian upper atmosphere
Date
February 20th 2021
Instruments
Emirates Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EMUS)
Description
These false-colour images of Mars were obtained by the Emirates Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EMUS) from an altitude of 36,000 km above the Martian surface. Each colour represents light collected at a different ultraviolet wavelength and provides unique information about the Martian upper atmosphere, at the edge of space.
Images from left to right (with respective wavelengths in nanometers):
Violet (102.6 nm) and blue (121.6 nm) show the reflection of sunlight from the extended cloud of hydrogen atoms surrounding the planet.
Green (130.4 nm) shows the reflection of sunlight from oxygen atoms in the upper atmosphere.
Orange (135.6 nm) shows energetic electrons causing other oxygen atoms to glow, similar to a fluorescent lamp.
Red (140-160 nm) shows a combination of emissions coming from carbon monoxide molecules.
The hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon monoxide in these images are produced by the breakdown of water and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. By making observations like these, EMM will improve our knowledge of how the upper and lower atmosphere of Mars are connected and how the atmosphere has been slowly lost to space over the history of the solar system.
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Title
First Emirates Mars Mission picture after Mars Orbit Insertion
Date
February 10th 2021
Instruments
Emirates eXploration Imager(EXI)
Description
This picture was taken by the EXI instrument from an altitude of 24,700 km above the Martian surface at 20:36 UTC on 10 February 2021, one day after arriving at Mars. The color is created from a composite of red, green, and blue EXI images.
The North pole of Mars is in the upper left of the image. EMM captured the largest volcano in the solar system, Olympus Mons (center), emerging into the early morning sunlight. More prominent are the three large shield volcanoes of Tharsis Montes (Ascraeus Mons, Pavonis Mons, and Arisia Mons).
Further to the East or right of the volcanoes lie Noctis Labyrinthus and the Valles Marineris system of canyons, filled with clouds. Ice clouds are present over the southern highlands (lower right) as well as surrounding the volcano Alba Mons (upper left).
Clouds can also be seen above the limb (top of image and middle right, when looking between the planet and space).
These clouds, seen in different geographic regions and at different times of day, provide a preview of EMM’s contributions to our understanding of the Martian atmosphere..
(Credit: Emirates Mars Mission/EXI)
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