Overview

• Perseverance's newly released image, taken in March 2025, highlights Deimos, Mars' smaller moon, alongside stars Regulus and Algieba from the Leo constellation.
• Captured with the rover's left Navcam using advanced long-exposure techniques, the photo was taken just before dawn on the Martian surface.
• Deimos, a potato-shaped moon likely to be a captured asteroid, measures only 7.7 miles in diameter and orbits Mars at a distance of 14,577 miles.
• This marks a shift in Perseverance's mission focus, expanding from geological sampling to broader cosmic observations, enriching our understanding of Martian satellites.
• The image complements ESA’s Hera mission flyby of Deimos in March 2025, contributing to comparative planetary science and public engagement with space exploration.