Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Space
  3. News

NASA’s Perseverance rover spots Mars’ teeny tiny moon, Deimos

By

NASA’s Perseverance rover doesn’t only spend its time looking down at the rocks and dust that cover the surface of Mars. It also looks up, and recently it captured an image of Mars’ tiny moon, Deimos, hovering overhead in the Martian sky.

Deimos is the smaller of Mars’ two moons, along with its bigger companion, Phobos, and measures less than 2 miles across. It is covered in impact craters from asteroid strikes, and it’s also covered in dust that gives it a smoother appearance than Phobos.

Recommended Videos

NASA shared the following image captured by the rover looking up, which zooms in to show the tiny bright white dot of Phobos passing through the sky:

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Sky watching is fun no matter where you are. I took this short time lapse movie to watch for clouds, and caught something else: look closely and you’ll see Deimos, one of two moons of Mars.

More on this tiny moon: https://t.co/TzHMc0aIS3 pic.twitter.com/akfbhfsw33

— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) August 20, 2021

Related

A particularly intriguing concept about Mars’ moons is that they could once have been rings, like those around Saturn. Over thousands of years, the material in these rings condensed into the two moons we see today. And the moons might not be around forever — one theory states that eventually Phobos will come too close to Mars and break apart into tiny pieces, becoming a set of rings. This may even operate as a cycle, with Mars switching between rings and moons over millennia.

Rendering showing a planetary ring system over Mars.
Rendering showing a planetary ring system over Mars. Demonstrates either the formation or destruction of Phobos and/or Deimos. Kevin Gill

Mars’ moons have also been in the news recently as Japanese scientists suggested that Deimos’ companion, Phobos, may be the ideal location to search for signs of ancient life. Although the moon itself lacks atmosphere and water, making it unsuitable for hosting life, it could carry evidence if there was once life on Mars. Asteroid strikes on the Martian surface have sent material flying onto Phobos, and its sterile environment could preserve these signs long-term.

We’ll learn more about Phobos and Deimos soon, as the Japanese space agency (JAXA) will be sending its Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) probe to visit them both. The plan is for the probe to land on Phobos and collect a sample to return to Earth, and it will also perform a flyby of Deimos on its way. The mission aims to launch in 2024.

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Georgina Torbet
Georgina Torbet
Space Writer
Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…
See the polar moon sites where NASA plans to land its astronauts
An artist’s concept of an Artemis astronaut deploying an instrument on the lunar surface.

NASA has updated its list of potential landing sites for the next human visit to the moon, which is planned for 2026. The Artemis III mission will see the first crewed lunar landing since the Apollo era, and the plan is for astronauts to explore the moon's South Pole region where there is thought to be water ice on the lunar surface.

NASA shared a list of 13 candidate landing locations for Artemis III in 2022, but has now updated its list to nine candidates. Some of these were on the list previously, while others have been added such as the Mons Mouton mountain and plateau, which is particularly interesting to scientists because the height of the mountain means that there are permanently shadowed regions nearby. These places, where sunlight never touches, are particularly good candidates when it comes to looking for water ice.

Read more
Follow Mars rover’s 18-mile trip in NASA’s animated route map
The route taken on Mars by NASA's Perseverance rover.

NASA has shared a fascinating animation showing the route taken by the Perseverance rover on Mars since its arrival there in February 2021.

Perseverance is NASA’s most advanced Mars rover to date, and while its general routes are decided by a team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the rover actually moves forward autonomously, checking for hazards and moving around any problematic objects as it goes.

Read more
NASA’s Perseverance rover shares update during tricky Mars climb
An image of the Mars landscape captured by the Perserance rover.

NASA’s Perseverance rover is in the middle of a months-long journey up the rim of Jezero Crater on Mars, and on Thursday it beamed back a status update.

The vehicle started the climb in August in what’s considered to be the most ambitious and arduous phase of Perseverance's mission since arriving at the red planet in early 2021.

Read more