Images from the Hera mission show the object in remarkable detail — a small island gliding above the crater-scarred Martian desert.

While the car-sized spacecraft flew around the Mars system, flight controllers on Earth temporarily lost communication with Hera because the signal was blocked. Though the blackout was planned for the maneuver, Ian Carnelli, the European Space Agency's Hera mission manager, said it was deeply emotional.

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