Curiosity rover shoots video of Martian moonrise

NASA has released a new video made up of stills captured by its Curiosity Mars rover, showing the small moon Phobos climbing away from the horizon toward its zenith in the Martian sky. The moonrise, which takes 14 seconds in the video, was actually filmed one frame at a time over the course of 27 minutes on the evening of June 28, 2013.

Phobos is the larger of Mars' two moons, with a mean radius of about about 11.1 km. Its partner, Deimos, has a mean radius of 6.2 km and orbits quite a bit further out—about 23,000 km from Mars versus Phobos at 9,300 km. Both moons are likely captured asteroids, snared by Mars' gravity well at some point much earlier in the solar system's history.

According to CBS News, Curiosity is about to begin its first significant bit of travel on the Martian surface, traveling about 8 km away from its landing site to conduct experiments in the foothills of Aeolis Mons, also known as "Mount Sharp." Curiosity will take at least nine months to make the journey, with stops along the way to conduct observations and experiments.