Since it landed on Mars on February 18th, NASA's Perseverance rover has blessed us with dozens of images taken of the red dusty alien soil. While most of the time, the rover is busy hunting for rocks that may hold traces of ancient microbial life, sometimes, it also looks up in the sky and captures spectacular views.
So far, the rover has captured over 75,000 photos, showing incredible views of mystery rocks, cliffs, and its little helicopter buddy Ingenuity in flight. As Perseverance is paving the way for future human missions on Mars, the rover showcases technologies that could be employed to aid astronauts. These include looking up sometimes to study the weather, dust, and other potential environmental factors that could affect future astronauts living and working on the Red Planet.
Recently, as the rover was taking a short time lapse movie to watch for clouds, it caught something else with its onboard camera: one of the two Martian moons hovering in the sky. Named after the god of fear and terror in Greek mythology, Deimos is truly a tiny moon compared to our planet's natural satellite, measuring only 2.3 km (1.4 miles) in diameter.
It is crisscrossed by dozens of impact craters, yet the partial filling of some of the craters gives it a smooth appearance. Because that moon's surface lacks the gravitational pull to hold the ejecta, dust and debris will leave the moon after a collision. However, Mars' gravitational pull will keep a ring of material around the planet in roughly the same orbit as Deimos. That's how the debris gets redeposited as a dusty layer on the moon's surface as it revolves around the Red Planet.
Perseverance will continue its mission on Mars. The rover recently attempted to gather up samples by drilling up a hole in the soil. Because the initial attempt failed, the rover is gearing up for its second try, this time in another location called Citadelle.
Recently, as the rover was taking a short time lapse movie to watch for clouds, it caught something else with its onboard camera: one of the two Martian moons hovering in the sky. Named after the god of fear and terror in Greek mythology, Deimos is truly a tiny moon compared to our planet's natural satellite, measuring only 2.3 km (1.4 miles) in diameter.
It is crisscrossed by dozens of impact craters, yet the partial filling of some of the craters gives it a smooth appearance. Because that moon's surface lacks the gravitational pull to hold the ejecta, dust and debris will leave the moon after a collision. However, Mars' gravitational pull will keep a ring of material around the planet in roughly the same orbit as Deimos. That's how the debris gets redeposited as a dusty layer on the moon's surface as it revolves around the Red Planet.
Perseverance will continue its mission on Mars. The rover recently attempted to gather up samples by drilling up a hole in the soil. Because the initial attempt failed, the rover is gearing up for its second try, this time in another location called Citadelle.
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.
— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) August 20, 2021
More on this tiny moon: https://t.co/TzHMc0aIS3 pic.twitter.com/akfbhfsw33