Photobombing isn’t just us humans playing pranks on our friends – it appears to be quite popular among celestial bodies too.
A tiny moon named Phobos made its presence known as Nasa’s Hubble Space Telescope was busy trying to take photos of Mars.
Not wanting to feel left out, Phobos, which is one of the Red Planet’s two moons, made a cameo appearance in the photoshoot.
Nasa said: “Over the course of 22 minutes, Hubble took 13 separate exposures, allowing astronomers to create a time-lapse video showing the diminutive moon’s orbital path.
“The Hubble observations were intended to photograph Mars, and the moon’s cameo appearance was a bonus.”
Phobos is so small, in relation to the planet it orbits, it appears “star-like” in the Hubble pictures.
Mars’s natural satellite was first discovered by Asaph Hall on August 17, 1877. It orbits just 3,700 miles above the Martian surface – making it closer to its parent planet than any other moon in the solar system.
Evidence gathered by Nasa scientists suggest Phobos is being torn apart by the gravitational pull of Mars.
“The moon is marred by long, shallow grooves that are probably caused by tidal interactions with its parent planet,” the US space agency said. “Phobos draws nearer to Mars by about 6.5 feet every hundred years.
“Scientists predict that within 30 to 50 million years, it either will crash into the Red Planet or be torn to pieces and scattered as a ring around Mars.”
Hang in there Phobos.
