Swiss perspectives in 10 languages

Hera images capture dark side of Martian moon

Hera transmits images of the little-known far side of a Martian moon
Hera transmits images of the little-known far side of a Martian moon Keystone-SDA

The European asteroid defence mission Hera has captured images of the Martian moon Deimos.

+ Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

The Hera probe, which has Swiss involvement, deployed its scientific instruments beyond Earth and the moon for the first time.

+ Switzerland punches above its weight in space exploration

The European Space Agency ESA presented the images to the media on Thursday. “This was the first exciting exploration experience for the Hera team,” said mission manager Ian Carnelli, according to an ESA statement.

Hera flew past the planet Mars on Wednesday to gain momentum for the rest of its journey. The images taken during the mission arrived on Earth early Thursday morning.

According to the ESA, the images taken by Deimos show the previously little-known rear side of the Martian moon. ESA researchers are hoping to gain new insights into the formation of the moon.

The target of the mission is the asteroid Dimorphos, which was deflected from its orbit by a NASA probe. Researchers from the University of Bern are involved in the mission.

More

Translated from German with DeepL/mga

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.

Popular Stories

Most Discussed

News

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR