Our solar system was captured by a satellite.
The European Space Agency recently released footage filmed this year by its Mars Express satellite, which has been snapping detailed views of the Red Planet for nearly twenty years.
We can see the desert world's small, lumpy moon Deimos in the background as we peer into space. Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, has four large moons, including the most volcanically active Io, which is the biggest moon in our solar system. The four Galilean satellites appear as white dots in the footage below.
The space agency describes the scene, which is composed of 80 images, as follows. The small movements of Deimos in the sequence of images are caused by the small movements of the spaceship.
Two views of Mars' moon Deimos. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona
The moon is covered in craters. When objects smash into the tiny satellite, the blasted rocks and dust likely escape into space as opposed to falling back to the surface.
Scientists are looking for signs of primitive life on the surface of Mars. There isn't any evidence of life outside of Earth. NASA's Perseverance rover is currently exploring the dried-up river delta in Jezero Crater, a place planetary scientists believe once hosted a lake.
One of the best places for the rover to look for signs of past life is the Delta.
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