The NASA Mars Rover pictures and videos are always a thing of beauty, fascinating viewers with a peek of the celestial bodies far away from us. Over the weekend, the Perseverance Rover gave everyone a treat once again with a cool video taken from Mars.
On Twitter, the official account of NASA's Mars Perseverance Rover shared a clip of a time lapse taken from the Red Planet. While it initially looked like a normal video of the vast horizon of the planet as the day passed by, one notable object was caught at some point in the video: Mars' moon Deimos!
Here's a look at the time lapse:
Sky watching is fun no matter where you are. I took this short time lapse movie to watch for clouds, and caught something else: look closely and you’ll see Deimos, one of two moons of Mars.
— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) August 20, 2021
More on this tiny moon: https://t.co/TzHMc0aIS3 pic.twitter.com/akfbhfsw33
Mars Moons
As NASA explained, the Red planet has two moons: Deimos and Phobos. What was spotted in the clip is Deimos, which is the smaller of the two moons.
It was discovered in 1877 by Asaph Hall and named after the mythological sons of Ares--who is the Greek counterpart of Mars, the god of war.
The said moon goes around Mars every 30 hours. NASA described it as "a dark body that appears to be composed of C-type surface materials." It's structure is often compared to that of asteroids found in outer asteroid belt.
Read also: NASA Hubble Telescope Pictures of Heaven: Space Observatory Snaps Remarkable Spiral Galaxy
NASA Mars Rover Pictures and Videos
The NASA Mars Rover is currently in Mars to look for signs of life--ancient microbial life to be exact. However, as Cnet explained, it is also tasked to check the geology, geography and weather of the Red Planet.
That is the reason why it recorded a time lapse of the skies since it is observing the clouds of the planet.
Fortunately, everyone got to see a rare glimpse at the moon Deimos, even if it was only small and for a brief period.
It is also not the first time that the rover has sent back photos from Mars. In fact, previously, it has produced a detailed panorama dn 360-degree view of the Red Planet in more details.
Google also recently celebrated all the NASA Mars Rover pictures with an awesome clip reimagining if the handy robot has Google photos.
Related Article: China Rover Extends Stay on Mars: Zhurong Will Take a Break Before Resuming its Mission
