Watch Mars’ moons cross paths
On March 1, 2025, the European Area Company launched one other spherical of knowledge from its Mars Express orbiter. Mars Categorical has been orbiting the purple planet since December 2003. The newest information launch included the pictures right here, highlighting Mars’ potato-shaped moons – probably captured asteroids – Phobos and Deimos. Within the animation above, courtesy of Andrea Luck, we see the bigger moon, Phobos, cross immediately in entrance of Deimos from the spacecraft’s perspective. Luck said:
The true time would have been one minute and some seconds, not as quick as on this animation.
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An instance of an occultation
When one object crosses immediately in entrance of one other, astronomers name that an eclipse or an occultation. On this case, Phobos is occulting Deimos. This occasion was on August 30, 2024. Right here’s a picture from 2014 from NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover of the Martian moon Phobos partially eclipsing the solar.
Extra on Mars’ moons
Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos. As a result of Mars is known as for the Roman God of Warfare, its moons carry acceptable names that imply concern (Phobos) and dread (Deimos). These lumpy, potato-shaped moons are probably captured asteroids from the close by major asteroid belt.
Phobos is the bigger of the 2, however nonetheless a meager 17 by 14 by 11 miles (27 by 22 by 18 km) in diameter. (As compared, our moon is greater than 2,100 miles or 3,400 km large.) It circles Mars 3 times a day. In actual fact, it circles so intently that, in some locations, when the moon is “up”, you continue to wouldn’t be capable of see it because of the horizon. And Phobos is getting nearer yearly. Ultimately, the moon will both crash into the purple planet or shred into a hoop.
Deimos is 9 by 7 by 6.8 miles (15 by 12 by 11 km) and circles Mars each 30 hours. Its floor has a thick layer of mud, as a lot as 328 ft (100 meters) deep. Each Deimos and Phobos are tidally locked, which implies they all the time present the identical facet to their planet, identical to our moon.
Backside line: Watch a video exhibiting Mars’ moons – Phobos and Deimos – crossing within the sky. ESA’s Mars Categorical orbiter captured these photographs in August 2024 and the company launched them on March 1, 2025.
