The United Arab Emirates has unveiled the first image of Mars with their space explorer.
The photo, taken Wednesday, shows sunlight coming across the surface of the Mars, as well as the planet’s north pole and the largest volcano, Olympus Mons.
The image comes from the spaceship called Hope, or Amal in Arabic, a it went into orbit around Mars Tuesday after a seven-month flight.
It benefits the first interplanetary mission in the Arab world and makes the UAE the fifth country ever to reach the red planet.
The £ 160m satellite aims to paint a picture of the Martian atmosphere by studying daily and seasonal changes on the planet and is the first of three space missions to reach Mars on Earth. this month.
An orbiter and lander launched by China reached Mars orbit Wednesday. The pair will pass by NASA’s Perseverance rover on U.S. Feb. 18, the first to land on the surface of the red planet.
The three missions, launched in July 2020, create a wave of unmanned spacecraft to see if it ever lived on Mars, and to see if it could to be again.
The time of the orbits has been set by the orbits of Mars and Earth, with one one-month window in which the planets will be close enough together to allow the seven-month journey. That window would not have reopened for another 26 months.
Scientists believe that Mars was once abundant with water and able to sustain life.