See The Most ‘Amazing’ Martian Solar Eclipse Video Ever Seen As NASA’s Perseverance Rover Captures Potato-Shaped New Moon
NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image of its moon Phobos eclipsing the Sun using its … [+]
NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
NASA’s Perseverance rover has captured a stunning solar eclipse from its home in Jezero Crater on Mars.
Captured by its Left Mastcam-Z camera on the rover’s mast, it shows the tiny potato-shaped moon Phobos moving across the Sun.
Phobos is the innermost and larger of Mars’ two moons, the other being Deimos.
Acquired by Perseverance on April 2, 2022 at the local mean solar time of 08:20, the above image was one of 194 taken during the 40 second eclipse. There have been assembled into this incredible video released today by NASA:
It’s the highest frame-rate video of an eclipse of the Sun by Phobos ever seen.
“I knew it was going to be good, but I didn’t expect it to be this amazing,” said Rachel Howson of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, one of the Mastcam-Z team members who operates the camera.
The originals are lower-resolution thumbnails, but the video uses full-resolution versions.
“It feels like a birthday or holiday when they arrive,” said Howson. “You know what’s coming, but there is still an element of surprise when you get to see the final product.”
NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image of its moon Phobos eclipsing the Sun using its … [+]
NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
It’s not the first time solar eclipses have been seen by NASA’s Mars rovers.
In 2004 its Spirit and Opportunity rovers took the first time-lapse photos of Phobos during a solar eclipse, a trend continued by the Curiosity rover.
However, these aren’t total solar eclipses.
For those you need to have a moon that’s sometimes exactly the same apparent size as the Sun—as we have on Earth where the Moon is 400 times smaller than the Sun, but 400 times closer.
Phobos, which is about 7 miles/11.5 kilometers across, cannot completely cover the Sun, so it’s causes an annular solar eclipse. On Earth we call that a “ring of fire” eclipse to describe something similar that happens when our Moon is at apogee—its furthest point from the Earth in its elliptical orbit—when it appears smaller in the sky than the Sun.
Total darkness doesn’t occur during an annular eclipse, so if you were on Mars standing next to Perseverance on April 2, you would have had to wear solar safety eclipse glasses.
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
