See Haunting Video of Mars and Jupiter Moons Engaging in a Cosmic Dance
The Mars Express spacecraft caught sight of Martian moon Deimos moving in front of Jupiter and its moons.
The European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft is close to Mars, but far from Jupiter. That didn't stop it from capturing a remarkable series of images showing the Martian moon Deimos in the foreground appearing to cross over Jupiter and the gas giant's four largest moons.
ESA released a video this week showing Mars' lumpy little moon passing in front of Jupiter on Feb. 14, 2022. There's a Pac-Man-like look to the sequence as Deimos moves across the screen obscuring the small dots of the distant moons and Jupiter.
To understand how wild this is, keep in mind Mars Express is 463 million miles (745 million kilometers) from Jupiter. That's five times the distance between between Earth and the sun, ESA said. The spacecraft is in orbit at Mars on a mission to study the red planet's atmosphere and climate, and to search for signs of water.
The video consists of 80 images from the spacecraft's High Resolution Stereo Camera. ESA explained the shaky-cam look, saying, "Deimos appears to move up and down in the animation due to the small swaying movements of Mars Express while it rotates to place the HRSC camera into position."
Deimos passes in front of moons Europa and Ganymede, then passes over Jupiter (the big white spot in the video), then over moons Io and Callisto. Jupiter has dozens of moons, but those are the four largest. Mars, by comparison, has only two moons, Deimos and Phobos.
ESA followed up the Jupiter video with a shorter sequence captured in March showing the larger moon Phobos passing in front of Deimos.
The moons featured in the videos will soon be the subject of closer investigations. Japan's space agency JAXA is developing the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission and ESA is leading the Jupiter Icy moons Explorer (Juice) mission. NASA is also prepping its Europa Clipper spacecraft to investigate the icy moon as a possibly habitable place for life.
The Mars Express views are fascinating to watch, and they're helping scientists dial in more precise orbits for the Martian moons. That data will be useful when MMX arrives to start its science work. "It is difficult to measure their orbits from Earth due to the brightness of Mars in comparison to these small bodies," ESA said. Good thing Mars Express is on site to help out.