Creepy footage captured by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express probe shows the Martian moon Deimos eclipsing Jupiter
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The new video, taken by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express satellite, consists of 80 individual images that have been stitched together. In the foreground is the irregularly shaped Martian satellite Deimos, with its rocky and cratered surface.
In the background is Jupiter and its four largest moons, known as the “Galilean moons” – Europa, Ganymede, Io and Callisto.
Jupiter is a large bright white circle near the center, while its moons appear as small white specks.
Meanwhile, a second, shorter cutscene shows Phobos, another Martian moon, blocking its brother Deimos.
Mars Express is still operational almost 20 years after its launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in June 2003.
“The new images show that Mars Express continues to explore Mars, the immediate vicinity of the Red Planet and even beyond,” the European Space Agency (ESA) said in a statement. The first clip consists of a series of 80 shots taken on February 14, 2022. It shows for the first time Deimos passing in front of Europa, the smallest of the four Galilean moons known for its icy surface and thin oxygen atmosphere.
Then the largest satellite of the solar system, Ganymede, disappears from view, as well as Jupiter, Io and, finally, Callisto.
In the clip, Deimos appears to move up and down due to the slight wiggle of Mars Express as it turns to position its camera. Deimos is the smaller and most distant of the two natural moons of Mars, the other being Phobos.
The two Martian moons experience a strong attraction from the planet, causing their orbits to fluctuate constantly. Phobos orbits very close to Mars at an average distance of 3,700 miles and is moving towards the planet, while Deimos is at an average distance of 12,470 miles and moving away from it.
Phobos was 7,618 miles from the camera at the time the images were taken, while Deimos was 17,340 miles away.
Much is still unknown about the two moons of Mars, though the upcoming MMX mission, led by the Japanese space agency, is set to fix that.
The launch is scheduled for next year, the mission will first orbit Phobos and Deimos, then land on Phobos and collect a sample from the larger moon, and then return to Earth.
Christina DENISYUK.
Source dailymail.co.uk
Photo: @ESA
Video taken from dailymail.co.uk
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