The European Space Agency’s Hera probe has captured stunning images of Mars’ smaller and more mysterious second moon, Deimos, during its flight past the planet en route to a pair of asteroids. The spacecraft took shots of the lesser-seen far side of Deimos from a distance of 620 miles, revealing the moon’s rugged terrain and geological features.
Deimos is tidally locked with Mars, always showing the same face to the planet’s surface. Its surface may be the remains of a giant impact with Mars or an asteroid that became captured by the planet’s gravitational pull. The images taken by Hera’s near-infrared Hyperscout H imager show Deimos as a dark blob near the bottom of the image, with the bright Terra Sabaea region near the Martian equator visible above it.
The spacecraft also captured images of several other features on Mars, including the 280-mile-wide Huygens crater and the large, smooth patch near the bottom right that is part of the Hellas Basin. These findings provide valuable insights into the geological history of Mars and its moons.
Hera’s mission is to study asteroid Dimorphos, which was altered by human action in 2022 when NASA’s Dart probe slammed into it. The spacecraft will analyse the asteroid to understand whether space rocks that threaten Earth could be deflected by such collisions.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/mar/13/passing-probe-captures-images-of-mysterious-mars-moon