ESA's Hera spacecraft inaugurated use of its science instruments to image the smaller of the planet's two moons, Deimos.

European space researchers have discovered a bizarre phenomenon on Mars: thousands of dark formations resembling giant spiders crawling across the icy surface of the Red Planet. Images from ESA's Mars Express and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter probes reveal that these are not alien life forms,

Like our moon, Deimos is tidally locked to Mars, meaning the same side always faces the planet—the only side visible to rovers on the Martian surface. The only way to see Deimos’ far side up close is for a probe like Hera to fly behind it, making such images more of a rarity.

The Hera probe has swung around Mars, using the planet’s gravitational pull to fling itself toward its asteroid target. During its brief rendezvous with the Red Planet, Hera caught a glimpse of the less-seen side of Mars’ smaller, tidally-locked moon as it orbited its home planet.

Hera will investigate the consequences of the targeted impact of the Dart probe into an asteroid moon. It has now gained momentum on Mars.

Europe's HERA mission has taken a good look at Mars and its moon Deimos on its way to explore the aftermath of the DART impact in the Didymos–Dimorphos asteroid system.

A mission to survey the results of a deliberate crash between an asteroid and a NASA spacecraft has taken stunning images of Mars and its moon Deimos

Hera spacecraft captured an extraordinary near-infrared image of Mars’ moon Deimos during a flyby of the Red Planet. This marks the first use of Hera’s science instruments, providing a detailed view of Deimos silhouetted against Mars—a rare perspective of the lesser-known Martian moon.