From its home in Jezero Crater on Mars, NASA's Perseverance rover photographed a beautiful solar eclipse, confirming that Earth isn't the only planet in the solar system that experiences them.
It depicts the tiny potato-shaped Moon Phobos moving across the Sun, as seen by the rover's Left Mastcam-Z camera on the mast.
Space.com said Mars has two moons. Phobos is the largest and innermost moon, while Deimos is the other.
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover used its Mastcam-Z camera to shoot video of Phobos, one of Mars’ two moons, eclipsing the Sun. It’s the most zoomed-in, highest-frame-rate observation of a Phobos solar eclipse ever taken from the Martian surface.
NASA Mars Perseverance Rover Captures Solar Eclipse
NASA's Perseverance Rover captured Phobos, Mars' potato-shaped Moon, crossing the face of the Sun. These findings will aid scientists in better understanding the Moon's orbit and how its gravity affects the Martian surface, eventually altering the planet's crust and mantle.
The eclipse lasted a little over 40 seconds, significantly shorter than a standard solar eclipse involving Earth's Moon, and was captured with Perseverance's next-generation Mastcam-Z camera on April 2, the 397th Martian day, or sol, of the mission.
Perseverance, which arrived in February 2021, captured the most zoomed-in footage of a Phobos solar eclipse at the most incredible frame rate ever. Perseverance's next-generation Mastcam-Z camera system, a zoomable improvement from Curiosity's Mastcam, is responsible.
"I knew it [would] be good, but I didn't expect it to be this amazing," said Rachel Howson in a statement. Howson is one of the Mastcam-Z team members who operate the camera.
Although Perseverance offers lower-resolution thumbnails to give a taste of what's to come, Howson was taken aback when she received the full-resolution versions.
This kind of a Phobos solar eclipse is also distinguished by its color. Mastcam-Z features a solar filter that reduces light intensity like sunglasses.
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Phobos' gravity produces minor tidal effects on Mars' interior as it rounds the planet, mildly deforming rock in its crust and mantle. Phobos' orbit is likewise steadily changing because of these causes. Consequently, geophysicists may utilize the changes to learn more about the components that make up Mars' crust and mantle.
Phobos is already doomed, according to scientists. The Moon is approaching the Martian surface and will collide with the planet in tens of millions of years. However, during the last two decades, eclipse observations from the surface of Mars have allowed scientists to improve their knowledge of Phobos' long death spiral.
A Normal Occurrence
Forbes said that solar eclipses have been observed by NASA's Mars rovers previously.
The Curiosity rover followed in the footsteps of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, which captured the first time-lapse photographs of Phobos during a solar eclipse in 2004. These aren't complete solar eclipses, though. On Mars, they're difficult to see.
Phobos, with a diameter of around 7 miles/11.5 kilometers, cannot totally obscure the Sun, resulting in an annular solar eclipse. On Earth, we refer to something similar as a "ring of fire" eclipse when our Moon is at apogee-its farthest point from the Earth in its elliptical orbit-and seems to be somewhat smaller in the sky than the Sun.
An annular solar eclipse does not produce total darkness. If you were on Mars on April 2 and stood next to Perseverance, you would have needed to wear sun safety eclipse glasses.
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