Martian Moon Orbiting the Red Planet
While photographing Mars on May 12, 2016, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured a cameo appearance of the tiny moon Phobos on its trek around the Red Planet. Discovered in 1877, the diminutive, potato-shaped moon is so small that it appears star-like in this time-lapsed Hubble picture. Phobos orbits Mars in just 7 hours and 39 minutes, which is faster than Mars rotates. The moon’s orbit is very slowly shrinking, meaning it will eventually shatter under Mars’ gravitational pull, or crash onto the planet.
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and Z. Levay (STScI); Acknowledgment: J. Bell (ASU) and M. Wolff (Space Science Institute)
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https://science.nasa.gov/image-detail/amf-gsfc_20171208_archive_e000019/
TakenDecember 8, 2017
ProducerGSFC
Image CreditNASA, ESA, and Z. Levay (STScI); Acknowledgment: J. Bell (ASU) and M. Wolff (Space Science Institute)
Size1920x1536px
PIA NumberGSFC_20171208_Archive_e000019
