images

Martian moon Phobos

by

Nasa/JPL/MSSS/Novapix

Reference

a-mar06-90001

Date

2006-10-20

On 1 June 2003, the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft photographed Phobos. About 0.006 times the size of Earth's Moon, Phobos is a potato-shaped object with dimensions approximately 27 by 22 by 18 kilometers (about 17 by 14 by 11 miles). The spaceprobe was about 9,670 kilometers (6,010 miles) from Phobos when the picture was taken. At this distance, the image resolution is about 36 meters (118 ft.) per pixel. This is the "trailing" hemisphere, the part of Phobos that faces opposite the direction that the moon orbits Mars.