spacetoday.net: ESA releases Phobos flyby images

Posted: Wed, Mar 17, 2010, 6:35 AM ET (1035 GMT)
Phobos image from Mars Express (ESA)

The European Space Agency released this week some of the best images ever of the Martian moon Phobos, taken by an ESA spacecraft earlier this month. ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, in orbit around Mars for several years, made several close passes of the small moon earlier this month; ESA released images taken during those flybys on Monday. The images show surface features with resolutions as sharp as 4.4 meters per pixel, making them some of the best images ever of the moon. The imagery includes the proposed landing site for a Russian spacecraft, Phobos-Grunt, scheduled for launch in 2011. That spacecraft would land on Phobos and collect a sample for return to Earth.