Perseverance watches moonrise on Mars | Space photo of the day for May 16, 2025

Mars. That means when seen in the night sky — as spotted here at 4:27 a.m. local time on March 1, 2025, the 1,433rd Martian day, or sol, of Perseverance's mission — it appears more like a star than it does a celestial body.

Deimos measures only 7.8 miles (12.6 kilometers) across.

Where is it?

Deimos completes one orbit around Mars every 30 hours and 17 minutes at an average distance of 14,576 miles (23,458 kilometers) from the Martian surface.

At the time this photo was taken, the Witch Hazel Hill."

Another feature, "Woodstock Crater," at center right, is roughly a half-mile (750 meters) away from the rover.

Why is it amazing?

This vista is the product of 16 individual shots, which Perseverance assembled into a single photo that it then transmitted to more about Deimos and first spacecraft to spot auroras from the surface of another world.

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collectSPACE.com, a daily news publication and community devoted to space history with a particular focus on how and where space exploration intersects with pop culture. Pearlman is also a contributing writer for Space.com and co-author of "Space Stations: The Art, Science, and Reality of Working in Space” published by Smithsonian Books in 2018.

In 2009, he was inducted into the U.S. Space Camp Hall of Fame in Huntsville, Alabama. In 2021, he was honored by the American Astronautical Society with the Ordway Award for Sustained Excellence in Spaceflight History. In 2023, the National Space Club Florida Committee recognized Pearlman with the Kolcum News and Communications Award for excellence in telling the space story along the Space Coast and throughout the world.