{"id":10798,"date":"2016-12-07T08:03:45","date_gmt":"2016-12-07T08:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revoscience.com\/en\/?p=10798"},"modified":"2016-12-07T08:03:45","modified_gmt":"2016-12-07T08:03:45","slug":"exomars-orbiter-images-phobes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/exomars-orbiter-images-phobes\/","title":{"rendered":"ExoMars orbiter images phobes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"ExoMars
ExoMars first colour image of Phobos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter has imaged the martian moon Phobos as part of a second set of test science measurements made since it arrived at the Red Planet on 19 October.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), a joint endeavour between ESA and Roscosmos, made its first scientific calibration measurements during two orbits between 20 and 28 November.<\/span><\/p>\n

Example data from the first orbit were published last week<\/a>, focusing on Mars itself. During the second orbit, the instruments made a number of measurements of Phobos, a 27\u00d722\u00d718 km moon that orbits Mars at a distance of only 6000 km.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\"ExoMars
ExoMars science orbit 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The camera imaged the moon on 26 November from a distance of 7700 km, during the closest part of the spacecraft\u2019s orbit around Mars. TGO\u2019s elliptical orbit currently takes it to within 230\u2013310 km of the surface at its closest point and around 98 000 km at its furthest every 4.2 days.<\/span><\/p>\n

A colour composite has been created from several individual images taken through several filters. The camera\u2019s filters are optimised to reveal differences in mineralogical composition, seen as \u2018bluer\u2019 or \u2018redder\u2019 colours in the processed image.<\/span><\/p>\n

An anaglyph created from a stereo pair of images captured is also presented, and can be viewed using red\u2013blue 3D glasses.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cAlthough higher-resolution images of Phobos have been returned by other missions, such as ESA\u2019s Mars Express and NASA\u2019s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, this provided a good test of what can be done with our data in a very short time,\u201d says Nick Thomas, principal investigator of the CaSSIS camera team at the University of Bern.<\/span><\/p>\n

[pullquote]TGO\u2019s main scientific goal is to make a detailed inventory of rare gases that make up less than 1% of the atmosphere\u2019s volume, including methane, water vapour, nitrogen dioxide and acetylene.[\/pullquote]<\/p>\n

\u201cThe images have given us a lot of useful information about the colour calibration of the camera and its internal timing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Two other instruments also made calibration measurements of Phobos, and the teams are analysing their data.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very happy with the results of both test science orbits and will be using these calibration data to improve our measurements once we begin the main science mission later next year,\u201d adds H\u00e5kan Svedhem, ESA\u2019s TGO Project Scientist.<\/span><\/p>\n

The focus of the mission now returns to preparations for aerobraking required to bring the spacecraft towards its near-circular science orbit by the end of 2017. More details on the upcoming operations will be provided soon.<\/span><\/p>\n

TGO\u2019s main scientific goal is to make a detailed inventory of rare gases that make up less than 1% of the atmosphere\u2019s volume, including methane, water vapour, nitrogen dioxide and acetylene.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of high interest is methane, which on Earth is produced primarily by biological activity, and to a smaller extent by geological processes such as some hydrothermal reactions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The spacecraft will also seek out water or ice just below the surface, and will provide colour and stereo context images of surface features, including those that may be related to possible trace gas sources.<\/span><\/p>\n

TGO will also act as a data relay for present and future landers and rovers on Mars, including the second ExoMars mission that will feature a rover and surface science platform, and which is scheduled for launch in 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), a joint endeavour between ESA and Roscosmos, made its first scientific calibration measurements during two orbits between 20 and 28 November.<\/p>\n

Example data from the first orbit were published last week, focusing on Mars itself. During the second orbit, the instruments made a number of measurements of Phobos, a 27\u00d722\u00d718 km moon that orbits Mars at a distance of only 6000 km.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":10800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-space-news"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/ExoMars_science_orbit_2_large.jpg",625,391,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/ExoMars_science_orbit_2_large-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/ExoMars_science_orbit_2_large-300x188.jpg",300,188,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/ExoMars_science_orbit_2_large.jpg",625,391,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/ExoMars_science_orbit_2_large.jpg",625,391,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/ExoMars_science_orbit_2_large.jpg",625,391,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/ExoMars_science_orbit_2_large.jpg",625,391,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/ExoMars_science_orbit_2_large.jpg",625,391,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/ExoMars_science_orbit_2_large.jpg",625,391,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/ExoMars_science_orbit_2_large.jpg",600,375,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/ExoMars_science_orbit_2_large.jpg",600,375,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/ExoMars_science_orbit_2_large.jpg",625,391,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/ExoMars_science_orbit_2_large.jpg",550,344,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/ExoMars_science_orbit_2_large.jpg",95,59,false],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/ExoMars_science_orbit_2_large.jpg",625,391,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/ExoMars_science_orbit_2_large.jpg",96,60,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/ExoMars_science_orbit_2_large.jpg",150,94,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Amrita Tuladhar"]},"category_info":"Space\/ AstroPhysics<\/a>","tag_info":"Space\/ AstroPhysics","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}