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| the European (ESA) Mars Express |
Passing just 28 miles (45 kilometers) above the surface of Phobos, the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft will be traveling too close and too fast to take any images of the lumpy, potato-shaped moon. But the probe's flyby will help scientists understand its weak gravitational field, ESA officials say.
Phobos is small, measuring only about 16 by 14 by 11 miles (27 by 22 by 18 km), which means a 150-pound (68 kilograms) person standing on its surface would weigh just two ounces (56 grams). [Photos: Mars' Biggest Moon Phobos Up Close]
Nonetheless, Phobos' gravitational pull will tug Mars Express slightly off course during Sunday's flyby. Ground stations around the world will track the precise location of the spacecraft for 35 hours around its big moment, looking for small deviations in the orbiter's path.
These slight movements can then be translated into measurements of the mass and density structure inside the moon. New data could build on past observations from the European orbiter that indicated the Martian moon could be quite hollow inside (between a quarter and a third empty space).
"By making close flybys of Phobos with Mars Express in this way, we can help to put constraints on the origin of these mysterious moons," Olivier Witasse, ESA's Mars Express project scientist said in a statement.
Read more: Mars Express Spacecraft To Make Closest Flyby Yet Of Red Planet's Moon Phobos (VIDEO)
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