UAE Hope Probe's Mars photo tops renowned science journal list

The first photo of Mars taken by the UAE's Hope Probe has topped the February list of best scientific images published by renowned science journal Nature.

The country made history exactly one month ago, when its spacecraft successfully entered Martian orbit on February 9.

Founded in 1869, Nature is one of the world's most cited, most read and most prestigious academic journals.

.@HopeMarsMission's first image of Mars tops the list of February's best science photos by @nature, the international weekly journal of science. pic.twitter.com/HMAgPjHzw3

— Dubai Media Office (@DXBMediaOffice) March 9, 2021

Its photo team picked the Hope Probe's first image of the Red Planet — altitude of 24,700 kilometres above the red planet’s surface — as the "sharpest science shot" for the month of February.

"Hope, now in an elliptical holding orbit while engineers test and commission its instruments, is ready to move into the ‘science orbit’ — from which the craft will begin its mission in earnest in mid-May," the journal noted.

"This wide elliptical orbit will allow Hope’s instruments to observe every geographical region of Mars, at every time of day, once every 9 days, to create a global map of Martian weather," it added.

Images of NASA's Martian landing and China's spacecraft, Tianwen-1, passing Mars as it enters its orbit, took second and third positions respectively.