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NASA’s Hubble Sees Martian Moon Orbiting the Red Planet
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NASA’s Hubble Sees Martian Moon Orbiting the Red Planet

NASA / GSFC · 2017-12-08 · photograph (digital archive)

From the collection of NASA Image and Video Library. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.

About this work

While photographing Mars, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured a cameo appearance of the tiny moon Phobos on its trek around the Red Planet. Discovered in 1877, the diminutive, potato-shaped moon is so small that it appears star-like in the Hubble pictures. Phobos orbits Mars in just 7 hours and 39 minutes, which is faster than Mars rotates. The moon’s orbit is very slowly shrinking, meaning it will eventually shatter under Mars’ gravitational pull, or crash onto the planet.

NASA Image and Video Library’s own description
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phobosmars
Credit lineNASA’s Hubble Sees Martian Moon Orbiting the Red Planet. NASA/GSFC, 2017-12-08. Public domain. ID: GSFC_20171208_Archive_e000019.
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