Monochromatic image of Deimos passing in front of Mars, acquired by the Asteroid Framing Camera (AFC)
Monochromatic image of Deimos passing in front of Mars, acquired by the Asteroid Framing Camera (AFC)
Martian moon Deimos appears dark, framed by the brighter planet Mars behind it, in this visible light monochromatic Asteroid Framing Camera image acquired by ESA’s Hera spacecraft during its gravity-assist flyby on 12 March 2025.
The car-sized planetary defence spacecraft was approximately 1000 kilometres from the 12.4-kilometre-diameter Deimos moon when this hyperspectral image was acquired. Deimos orbits at approximately 23,500 kilometres from the surface of Mars and is tidally locked, so that this side of the dark moon is rarely seen.
At the top of the image is the bright Terra Sabaea region, close to the Martian equator, outlined by darker regions around it, with part of the 450 kilometre-diameter Huygen crater seen to the right side of the image. To the bottom right corner is part of Hellas Basin, among the largest known impact craters in the Solar System with a diameter of 2300 kilometres and a depth of more than seven kilometres.
