# Passing probe captures images of mysterious Mars moon

Hera spacecraft takes photos of red planet’s second moon, Deimos, while en route to asteroids 110m miles away.

## Contributor

- **Ian Sample**  
  Science editor

- **Thu 13 Mar 2025 07.56 EDT**  
  Last modified on Thu 13 Mar 2025 12.12 EDT

## Summary

A European spacecraft has taken photos of Mars’s smaller and more mysterious second moon during its flight past the planet en route to a pair of asteroids more than 110m miles (177m km) away.

The Hera probe activated a suite of instruments to capture images of the red planet and Deimos, a small and lumpy 8-mile-wide moon, which orbits Mars along with the 14-mile-wide Phobos.

Mars appears light blue in the shot taken by Hera’s near-infrared Hyperscout H imager during a gravity-assist flyby on Wednesday. The slingshot manoeuvre around the planet will propel the spacecraft out towards the pair of asteroids it is due to reach in December next year.

Deimos appears as a dark blob near the bottom of the image. Above it is the bright Terra Sabaea region near the Martian equator. To the bottom right of Terra Sabaea is the 280-mile-wide Huygens crater, and the similarly sized Schiaparelli crater is to the left. The large, smooth patch near the bottom right is part of the Hellas Basin, among the largest impact craters in the solar system.

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