Mars moons together
Phobos and Deimos - the two mini-moons of Mars - have been photographed up close by ESA'S Mars Express.
It's the first time the pair have been imaged together in high resolution.
Phobos, the larger of the two moons, orbits closer to the Red Planet, circling it every 7 hours and 39 minutes. It was 11,800km from Mars Express when the images were taken. Deimos was 26,200km away.
Phobos (fear) and Deimos (panic) were named after the horses that pulled the chariot of the Greek war god Ares, the counterpart to the Roman war god Mars. Both were discovered in 1877 by American astronomer Asaph Hall.
The moons appear to have surface materials similar to many asteroids in the outer asteroid belt, which leads most scientists to believe Phobos and Deimos are captured asteroids.
Phobos won't be around forever, though. In the far future it will fly to close to its parent and break apart, forming a ring system which will continue to spiral slowly into Mars.
Weird Science Factoid: It costs three cents to make a $1 bill in the USA. That's value!
Join the Weird Science Facebook group here, or follow us on Twitter here or by searching for weirdsciblog.
Want to be sent the 'best' of the Weird Sci Blog every month? Then sign up for Weird News - a newsletter containing more info about the subjects we cover, plus some extra stuff that didn't make the blog. Interested? Subscribe by e-mailing wscience@me.com with the title 'count me in' and we'll do the rest.
Older/Newer
« Understanding quantum physics | Doing the dishes together makes you happier »
Authors
Daniel Smith - a long time ago, in a galaxy far away just north of Watford, Daniel fancied himself as a scientist but turned out to be the worst scientist since that bloke who mapped out all those canals on Mars that turned out to be scratches on his telescope's lens. Luckily, he is now not working on the Large Hadron Collider inadvertently creating a black hole that would swallow the world but is safely behind a desk writing this blog, bringing you the fantastical underbelly of nature... weird science.
