Above Mars, a moon is falling. Phobos, a lumpy, potato-shaped moon, orbits closer to its planet than any other known moon in the solar system, and it sinks about 1.8 metres every century. One day, Mars will pull it apart. This animated explainer shows why it is falling, how tides work, and what Mars will look like when Phobos is gone.

Chapters:

0:00 Intro: a moon that is falling

0:26 Meet Phobos

1:48 Too close for comfort

2:53 The invisible tug (tides, explained simply)

4:04 A very slow fall

4:50 Stretch marks

5:40 The breaking point (the Roche limit)

6:26 A ring for Mars

7:25 The lucky brother (Deimos)

8:40 A sample of a doomed moon (Japan's MMX mission)

9:21 The ending: written by the tides

• English AI voiceover

• Original synthesized music and sound effects, mixed to -14 LUFS

• Original vector animation in a flat, neon space style, 1080p at 60 fps

• Fact-checked figures: about 6,000 km above Mars, about 1.8 m per century, about 30 to 50 million years left

A short, fast-paced space story about gravity, tides and the strange fate of a tiny moon.