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Must be February
2010-02-06 16:33Originally published at a denizen's entertainment. You can comment here or there.
( Large in extent image behind cut )A new month, so time for a new desktop background. I had been using art shared from other people, but this time chose a screenshot I'd taken in Celestia a few days before.
The perspective is from the surface of Deimos, looking down to Mars below. Much closer than our moon to Earth. If you look along the terminator marking day from night, a white spot is visible. That is Phobos, the other moon, caught in its (less than) 8 hour orbit at a dramatic moment.
Apart from its large crater Stickney (not shown), Phobos is famous for its low and fast orbit, which contrary to that of our moon is decaying lower and faster. When it drops not much lower, tidal forces from Mars will tear it apart and for awhile Mars may be ringed until those fragments rain down upon its surface.
Deimos gets much less love, but perhaps when it is the last moon remaining this will change.
