As well as showing Deimos in more detail — including the first images of its far side — insights have been gained about its makeup and structure. The new observations challenge the longstanding theory that Mars’ moons are captured asteroids, and instead point to a planetary origin. In other words, both Deimos and Phobos likely came from Mars itself, possibly ejected from a large impact.
The science team behind the Emirates Mars Mission has revealed ground-breaking imagery and data that advances our understanding of Deimos.
Deimos is one of the two small moons of Mars, the other being Phobos. Discovered in 1,877, and named after the Ancient Greek god of terror, this rocky and irregularly shaped moon has a mean radius of 6.2 km (3.9 mi) and orbits at 23,500 km (6.9 Mars radii), making it the smaller and outermost natural satellite.
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