SPACE — New map of Mars shows the Red Planet in stunning detail. The map reveals many interesting geological features as seen from orbit.
The high-resolution maps can help scientists answer a number of pressing questions about Mars, including how it became such a dry, arid, and barren landscape even though it was once abundant with liquid water.
The Mars map was created by a team of scientists led by New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) and the United Arab Emirates Center for Space Sciences (UAE). The researchers used data collected from orbit around Mars by the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM), also known as Hope or Al-Amal.
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The map shows the Red Planet through the eye of Hope’s state-of-the-art onboard imaging system, the Emirates Exploration Imager (EXI), and is testament to the UAE’s growing influence on science. In a NYUAD statement, the new Mars map will hopefully motivate young people in the UAE to pursue careers in STEM.
“We plan to make our map available to the entire planet, as part of the new and more advanced Mars Atlas we’ve been working on, and will be available in English and Arabic once published,” said group leader and research scientist at NYUAD, Dimitra Atri .
“The hope is that this accessibility will make it a great tool for researchers, as well as students to learn more about Mars, and demonstrate the possibilities that the space sector can offer in the UAE.”
To create the map, Atri and team took more than 3,000 observations from EXI over a single Martian year, a period equivalent to two Earth years. The images are then combined to create a color composite. The resulting map shows many of the main geological features of the Red Planet in high resolution.
The map reveals polar ice caps, mountains and long-dormant volcanoes, as well as the remains of ancient rivers, lakes and valleys that overflowed with liquid water some 3.5 billion years ago. In doing so, the map can help planetary scientists better understand how the Martian climate has changed over billions of years resulting in the dry and barren world that can be observed today.
“The complete Mars map also brings the UAE and the Arab world one step closer to achieving the EMM’s ambitious mission goal of providing a complete global picture of the Martian climate,” added Atri.
“More than 30 spacecraft have previously only managed to capture images of the Martian weather, while the EMM will follow the changing seasons throughout the Martian year.”
By allowing scientists to study the distribution of impact craters across the planet’s arid surface, the map also reveals the early history of asteroid bombardment of Mars. In doing so, the combined EXI images can also help researchers better understand conditions in the turbulent early solar system when space rock impacts were much more frequent than they are today.
The Al Amal orbiter is the first interplanetary mission from the UAE and from the Arab world as a whole. Commissioned by UAE leaders in 2014, the spacecraft launched from Japan on July 20, 2020. After a journey of about seven months, Hope reached orbit around Mars on February 9, 2021.
“The Hope probe helps researchers to create a global image of the planet due to its strategic position. Hope surrounds Mars in an elliptical orbit that allows it to observe from far, farther than any other spacecraft. This strategic position helps researchers create a global image of the planet, ” said Atri.
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