Phobos & Deimos -- The Moons of Mars Explained

By Nancy Atkinson - May 14, 2014 at 5:59 PM UTC | Planetary Science

Where did Mars' moons Phobos and Deimos come from? How did they end up in orbit around Mars? This cool video from the folks at Kurzgesagt answers the most-oft asked questions about these mini moons.

You should also check out their other wonderful videos, like the one about our own Moon, below, which explains how big our Moon really is. The answer might surprise you.

Who is Kurzgesagt? They are video designers who create fun and intellectually stimulating content about space, science and many other topics. "Kurz gesagt" is a German expression for "to make a long story short" and the Kurzgesagt team says it precisely conveys their goal to present complex topics in a short and understandable way to the world. "Also, we want to make stuff that simply looks awesome."

Mission accomplished! Look for more videos from Kurzgesagt on Universe Today in the future.

Check out their website here and all their videos on their You Tube page.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com