The
Martian moon of Phobos floats above the planetary line between day and night, as seen by Mars
Express.
Phobos
(fear) and its fellow moon Deimos (panic) hover in attendance over Mars, named
after the Roman god of war. But the battered Phobos appears less frightening
and more pitiful upon closer scrutiny, as seen by the European Mars Express and
other spacecraft. A close-up by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter earlier this
year showed all the
gory details of an impact crater and other parts of the lumpy moon.
Scientists
theorize that Phobos and Deimos may have originated from a large moon that
broke up, or formed from material blasted out of the Martian surface by asteroid
impacts. They may learn more if Russia moves ahead with plans to develop a
Phobos-Grunt mission to collect samples from the moon.
— ESA and SPACE.com Staff
Credit: ESA/DLR/FU
Berlin (G. Neukum)
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