Posted on 02/26/2024 2:33:12 PM PST by MtnClimber
Explanation: What if there were two moons in the sky -- and they eclipsed each other? This happens on Mars. The featured video shows a version of this unusual eclipse from space. Pictured are the two moons of Mars: the larger Phobos, which orbits closer to the red planet, and the smaller Deimos, which orbits further out. The sequence was captured last year by the ESA’s Mars Express, a robotic spacecraft that itself orbits Mars. A similar eclipse is visible from the Martian surface, although very rarely. From the surface, though, the closer moon Phobos would appear to pass in front of farther moon Deimos. Most oddly, Phobos orbit Mars so close that it appears to move backwards when compared to Earth's Moon from Earth, rising in west and setting in the east. Phobos, the closer moon, orbits so close and so fast that it passes nearly overhead about three times a day.
Today's image is a video at the source link or at Youtube.
It would be cool to have two moons, but I gotta say... ours is much better-looking.
Is that Frank Frazetta’s art? John Carter on Mars.
Aren’t they really tiny? If you were on Mars, you would hardly notice them?
From an Astronomy Magazine article, it says Phobos appears about half the size of Earth's moon from the surface of Mars. Deimos is much smaller only 2.5 minutes of arc as visible from the surface of Mars or about 2 and a half times the size of Venus when Venus is closest to earth.
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