Mars Curiosity Rover Shoots Video of Phobos Moon Rising 67
An anonymous reader writes "This movie clip shows Phobos, the larger of the two moons of Mars, passing overhead, as observed by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity in a series of images centered straight overhead starting shortly after sunset. Phobos first appears near the lower center of the view and moves toward the top of the view. The clip runs at accelerated speed; the amount of time covered in it is about 27 minutes"
MRO's images are totally awesome (Score:5, Informative)
For more immediate visual gratification appreciated by a wider audience, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter [wikipedia.org] provides wonderfully detailed images of Phobos [nasa.gov].
That was the instrument that caught this mind-numbing image of the Phoenix lander as it was descending on its parachute [arizona.edu]. Words are really quite superfluous.
Re:spectacular ... not (Score:5, Informative)
You're not too far off the mark. Phobos and Deimos were named after fear and dread [wikipedia.org], respectively.