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Martian Moons A collection of pictures of Mars' moons Phobos and Deimos, taken by space probes.

Mars' moons Phobos and Deimos were discovered in 1877 by US-American astronomer Asaph Hall. Today, both moons remain the objects closest to Earth that have never been directly visited by a space probe. All of our closeup pictures came from flybys of probes orbiting Mars. In December 2009, ESA's Mars Express managed to take a picture of both moons at the same time from a distance of 7,300 miles to Phobos and 16,300 miles to Deimos. Here are our favorite pictures of the Martian moons. Like our other space galleries, the pictures have not been selected because of their scientific significance but because of their esthetic value and sometimes because of their historical importance. Source: n-tv.de

On on November 14, 1971, NASA's Mariner 9 became the first space craft to orbit another planet. The probe did not only take over 7,000 images of the Martian surface but also the first closeup pictures of both moons.

Artist's impression of Mariner 9 in Mars orbit Source: robotglobe.org

First closeup picture of Phobos from a distance of 3,579 miles, December 1, 1971 Source: NASA

First closeup picture of Deimos, January 27, 1972 Source: planetary.org

Some websites incorrectly credit the Mars rovers with some of the closeup images. From the surface of Mars, the moons only look like bright stars, as the picture in the middle, taken by the rover Spirit on August 26, 2005 shows. The rover Curiosity, however, was able to take pictures of a solar eclipse (picture right), when Phobos passed in front of the sun on August 20, 2013. The best closeup pictures (below, left and center) were taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on March 23, 2008.

Deimos and Phobos (center) seen from Mars' surface; Source: NASA

Phobos eclipse Source: JPL/NASA

Phobos from a distance of 4,200 miles Source: NASA

Limtoc crater inside Stickney crater Source: JPL/NASA

Phobos Monolith Source: Wikipedia

In 1998, NASA's Mars Global Surveyor took a closeup picture of Phobos (above right). Later investigation revealed a building sized boulder. Based on the shadow casted by the boulder, it was calculated, that the Phobos Monolith has a diameter of 279 feet and is 300 feet tall.

There are not very many closeup pictures of Deimos, the smaller, outermost moon. The best color image was taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on February 21, 2009. The closest and highest resolution image of Deimos' surface was taken from a distance of only 18.6 miles by the Viking 2 Orbiter on October 15, 1977.

Enhanced-color image of Deimos Source: NASA

The surface of Deimos Source: NASA

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