Written by Samah Labib
Saturday, 01 April 2023 08:00 PM
Shows a new map of Mars red planet in stunning detail, revealing a wealth of fascinating geological features as seen from orbit.
The high-resolution map could help scientists answer a number of pressing questions about Mars, including how it became such a dry, arid surface despite its abundance of liquid water, according to the SpaceX report.
The Mars map was created by a team of scientists led by New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Center for Space Sciences.
The researchers used data collected from orbit around Mars by the Emirates Exploration for Mars Mission (EMM), also known as Hope or Hope.
The map shows the Red Planet through the eyes of the ship’s state-of-the-art imaging system, the Emirates Exploration Imager (EXI), a testament to the UAE’s growing influence in science. NYU Abu Dhabi wrote in a statement that it hopes the new Mars map will motivate young people in the United Arab Emirates to pursue careers in STEM disciplines.
We plan to make our map available to the entire planet, as part of the new, more advanced Mars Atlas, which we have worked on, and it will be available in both English and Arabic as soon as it is published.
Group leader and research scientist Dimitra Atre said in the statement. “The hope is that this accessibility will make it a great tool for researchers, as well as students to learn more about Mars, and highlight the potential that the UAE space sector can offer.”
To create the map, Atre and the team took more than 3,000 EXI observations taken over a Martian year, which is the equivalent of two years here on Earth, and stitched them together to build a color composite. The resulting map shows many of the Red Planet’s key geological features in high resolution.
The map reveals polar ice caps, mountains and long, inactive volcanoes, as well as the remains of ancient rivers, lakes and valleys that flooded with liquid water some 3.5 billion years ago. As such, the map can help planetary scientists better understand how the Martian climate has changed over billions of years. It led to the dry, barren world we see today.
“The complete map of Mars brings the UAE and the Arab world one step closer to achieving the ambitious goal of the EMM mission to provide a complete global picture of the climate of Mars,” Atre added. “More than 30 previous spacecraft have only been able to capture a snapshot of Martian weather, while the EMM will track seasonal changes over the course of a Martian year.”
