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Deimos (moon)

Adapted from Wikipedia · Explorer experience

A detailed image of Deimos, one of Mars' moons, showing its cratered surface as captured by NASA's HiRISE camera.

What is Deimos?

Deimos is a tiny moon that orbits the planet Mars. It is the smaller and farther moon of Mars, with the other moon called Phobos. Deimos looks like a small, gray rock and is much smaller than our Moon here on Earth.

Where Did Deimos Come From?

Deimos was discovered in 1877 by a scientist named Asaph Hall at the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C.. He was searching for moons around Mars and found Deimos, and later found Phobos too. The name Deimos comes from an Ancient Greek word meaning “dread,” and it is linked to stories about gods.

Fun Facts About Deimos

Deimos is shaped like a lumpy ball, about as wide as a big city street. It is made of rocky material, similar to some space rocks we find here on Earth. Because Deimos is so small, if you jumped on it, you could probably jump right off into space!

From Mars, Deimos looks like a tiny bright star moving slowly across the sky. Space cameras have taken beautiful pictures of Deimos as it passes in front of the Sun, making it look like a little black dot.

Many space missions have flown by Deimos to take pictures, but no spacecraft has landed on it yet. Scientists are excited about future trips to visit Deimos and learn more about this little moon.

Images

Portrait of Asaph Hall, an astronomer known for discovering the moons of Mars.
A space diagram comparing the sizes of Earth's Moon and Mars's moons Phobos and Deimos.
A colorful educational montage showing the planets of our solar system—Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—as captured by NASA spacecraft. Great for learning about space!
A stunning view of the planet Jupiter and its four largest moons, known as the Galilean satellites, captured by the Voyager 1 spacecraft.
A colorful view of the dwarf planet Pluto and its large moon Charon, showing their unique surfaces as captured by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft.
An image of asteroid 243 Ida and its moon Dactyl taken by the Galileo spacecraft in 1993, showing details of their surface and composition.
A visual guide showing the major objects in our Solar System, with planets and the Sun displayed roughly to scale.
A stunning view of our planet Earth as seen from the Apollo 17 spacecraft, showing Africa, Antarctica, and the Arabian Peninsula from space.
Animation showing the paths of Mars's two small moons, Phobos and Deimos, as they travel around the planet.
Astronomical Event: The tiny Martian moon Deimos passing in front of the Sun, as captured by the Opportunity rover from the surface of Mars.

Related articles

Earth
Mars
Asaph Hall
United States Naval Observatory
Washington, D.C.
Greek mythology

This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on Deimos (moon), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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