ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Transit of Deimos from Mars

Deimos is a small rocky moon that orbits around Mars, which is a planet that is close to Earth in our solar system. Sometimes, when Deimos passes in front of Mars, it looks like it is moving across the face of the planet. This is called a transit.

Think of it like this: Imagine you have a little toy car that you play with on a big playground. The car is like Deimos and the playground is like Mars. When you hold the car up in front of the playground, you can see the playground through the wheels and the body of the car. That's kind of like what it's like when Deimos transits across Mars - we can see Mars through the moon.

Scientists love it when Deimos transits across Mars because it gives them a chance to study both the moon and the planet at the same time. They can use telescopes and other tools to learn more about the size, shape, and composition of both Mars and Deimos during the transit.

So, in short, a transit of Deimos from Mars is when the small moon passes in front of the planet and looks like it's moving across the face of Mars. This gives scientists a great chance to study both objects in more detail.