Martian Moon Eclipsed by Jupiter as Captured by the ESA's Mars Express Probe

October 14, 2022 By Fakun Gram

(Image Credit Google)

Who would have thought that a tiny spacecraft more than 100 million kilometers (62 million miles) from Earth would be in such a wonderful spot at such a perfect time to see an incredible and uncommon occurrence in space? The European Space Agency's (ESA) Mars Express mission, which is used to observe the red planet, recently photographed an eclipse that included Jupiter, its four Galilean moons, and the smaller Martian moon Deimos. The distance between Mars and its gigantic neighbor at the time was approximately 745 million kilometers, but for a split second, Deimos and the Jovian system seemed to be one, as first reported by ScienceAlert. A compilation of 80 photos was used to create a movie depicting the alignment of these heavenly bodies on February 14. A Martian Moon Eclipsed by Jupiter as Captured by the ESA's Mars Express Probe

A Martian Moon Eclipsed by Jupiter as Captured by the ESA's Mars Express Probe

Because Deimos must be exactly positioned in the orbital plane of Jupiter's moons, the ESA said that such an alignment is highly uncommon. Deimos, which is barely 15 kilometers long, may be seen in the video moving gently from left to right across the screen. As it passes, it obscures the ice moon Europa and the massive moon Ganymede, which look like tiny, star-like dots. The Jupiter disc, Io, a volcanic moon, and Callisto, Jupiter's second-largest moon, are all placed after these. It is challenging to pinpoint the locations and orbits of the Martian moons from Earth due to their small size and faintness. On the other hand, these observations enabled Mars scientists to accomplish that. It is unclear if Deimos and Phobos, Mars' two largest moons, were formerly pieces of a bigger body that split off or an asteroid that was passing by and became trapped in Mars' gravity.

By Fakun Gram

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Martian Moon Eclipsed by Jupiter as Captured by the ESA's Mars Express Probe

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