From the reporting department.
ABU DHABI, 9th August / WAM / Tomorrow, Wednesday, marks a year and a half since the start of the Emirates Mars Exploration Project, “The Hope Probe”, its scientific missions, which were launched on February 10, 2021, and since then the scientific community around the world has been in a state of suspense and anticipation for the scientific data packages issued by the project. Which contributed to removing a lot of mystery about the Red Planet.
Since the beginning of its scientific missions, the “Hope Probe” has achieved many achievements that astonished the world, including capturing the first comprehensive picture of the phenomenon of separate aurora in the atmosphere of Mars during the night using far ultraviolet rays, and providing the first information of its kind about the atmosphere of the red planet at different times. And he sent pictures of the “Olympus Munis” volcano, which is the largest volcano in the solar system, in addition to his success in recording unique observations about Martian dust storms and the way they develop and spread in vast areas of the planet.
The Emirates Mars Exploration Project has so far published 4 packages of scientific data collected by the probe, with a total size of 688.5 gigabytes, as part of its commitment to share this data and make it freely available to the scientific community around the world.
The first set of data included unique images of Mars that make unprecedented observations about the behavior of the gases in the atmosphere of the red planet and the interactions that occur between them. The observations showed significant differences in the abundance of both atomic oxygen and carbon monoxide in the upper atmosphere of Mars on the day side of the planet.
The new discoveries provided by the first set of data contribute to changing the previous concepts of scientists about the distribution of ultraviolet light emitted from the upper atmosphere of Mars, as they show the presence of vast structures for the abundance of atomic oxygen that differ in their levels from expected and also indicate unusual atmospheric disturbances in the atmosphere, especially And that the pictures were taken at a time when Mars was close to the top of its orbit “most far from the sun”, while solar activity was low, as the pictures showed the exceptional scene of oxygen emissions at the wavelength of 130.4 nanometers.
The second package revealed important information that helps the global scientific community to develop more accurate scientific models of the Martian atmosphere and contribute to a deeper understanding of its changes. the scientist.
The second package, which was published, included 76 gigabytes of information, images, and scientific data collected by the scientific devices carried by the “Hope Probe” on board during the first months of the start of its scientific mission around the Red Planet, specifically between May 23 to August 31, 2021.
In early April, the Emirates Mars Exploration Project published the third package of data of 29 GB, which the probe collected between September 1 and November 30, 2021, as it will help experts and scientists to expand their understanding of climate change on the Red Planet, especially since the digital exploration camera monitored 9 Photos on November 22, 2021, each taken 5 minutes apart from the previous one; The aim of these images revolves around studying the movement of winds, observing the phenomenon of cloud formation, and the movement of dust storms.
The fourth package of data presented a new set of scientific observations of the atmosphere of Mars, most notably the observations made by the ultraviolet spectrometer “EMUS” of the Hope probe, which provides better coverage of the Martian aurora, and the ultraviolet spectrometer detected solar particles and cosmic rays. Hungarian through an experiment he conducted by observing what the device captures when it is turned off.
The scale also showed the possibility of working with higher sensitivity and accuracy if needed when capturing scientific notes.
And the probe’s digital exploration camera “EXI” was able to take special high-resolution images, as the camera, which was specifically designed to capture movements and changes in the atmosphere, monitored the movement of dust on January 9 and 29 and February 23 of this year, and also monitored the clouds on December 42 in 2021 and January 7 and 25 of this year.
It is worth noting that the scientific mission of the Emirates Mars Exploration Project, “Probe of Hope”, focuses on collecting data and monitoring observations that help study the relationship between the upper and lower layers of the Martian atmosphere, allowing the scientific community to form a comprehensive picture of the Martian climate and atmosphere at different times of the day. Through the seasons of the Martian year.
The “Hope Probe” carries three innovative scientific devices: the EXI digital exploration camera, which captures high-resolution color images of Mars, and is also used to measure ice and ozone in the lower atmosphere, and the EMIRS infrared spectrometer, which measures temperatures and the distribution of dust, water vapor and clouds. The icy layer in the lower atmosphere, and the EMUS ultraviolet spectrometer, measures the oxygen and carbon monoxide in the Martian thermosphere and the hydrogen and oxygen in the outer atmosphere of Mars.