Perseverance rover observes solar eclipse from Mars (video)

NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance saw a solar eclipse with a “Google eye” as the moon of the planet Phobos passed in front of the sun.

Phobos — one of the two satellites of Mars, along with an even smaller one Deimos — traveled between the Red Planet and the sun September 30The 1285th Martian day of the Perseverance mission. The rover, located on the western wall of the Martian crater Jezero, captured the eclipse using the powerful Mastcam-Z camera system.

NASA recently shared a new video footage taken by Perseverance showing the tiny potato-shaped moon as it moves in front of the sun’s disk. Phobos appeared as a dark black object against the warm glow of the sun, creating something like a “googly eye” (where Phobos is the pupil) in the sky above Mars.

This is not the first time Perseverance has witnessed a solar eclipse from Mars. In fact, given that Phobos orbits the Red Planet once every 7.6 hours, this type of event is much more common on Mars compared to eclipses on Earth.

“Because Phobos’ orbit is almost perfectly aligned with the Martian equator and relatively close to the surface of the planet, transits of the Moon occur on most days of the Martian year,” NASA officials said. statement shares new footage from Perseverance.

Measuring only 17 miles (27 kilometers) at its widest point, Phobos is about 157 times smaller in diameter than Earth’s moon. Given its fast orbit, Phobos transits typically last only 30 seconds or so. The videos released show the eclipse in real time, as well as sped up four times.

“At the same time that Phobos appeared as a large black disc moving rapidly across the surface of the sun, its shadow, or antumbra, was moving across the surface of the planet,” NASA said in a statement.

In addition to PersistenceNASA curiosity and Possibility The rovers also observed solar eclipses on Mars, during which Phobos passed in front of the sun. By photographing different eclipses over the past 20 years, scientists can learn more about the Moon and how its orbit changes.

This data is especially useful because Phobos is approaching Mars at a rate of 6 feet (1.8 meters) every 100 years. As a result, the moon is predicted to crash into the Red Planet in about 50 million years, according to the statement.