Beyond Earth, other planets also witness breathtaking solar eclipses, and Mars recently had its own celestial display.
Approximately two months before a total solar eclipse is expected to darken a significant portion of North America, NASA's Perseverance rover captured a captivating timelapse of Phobos passing across the sun. The footage showcases a visually striking event, adding a unique cosmic touch to Mars' celestial scenery.
Martian Solar Eclipse: When 'Fear' Passed In Front of the Sun
The NASA Perseverance rover, which successfully landed on Mars in 2021, captured footage of the Martian moon Phobos, named after the ancient Greek word for "Fear," on February 8. Situated in Jezero Crater, Perseverance documented the peculiarly shaped moon passing in front of the larger sun.
Following this event, engineers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) uploaded 68 images of the solar eclipse to the Perseverance raw images repository. The footage, filmed using the rover's left Mastcam-Z camera, renowned for capturing panoramic landscape views, showcased the small moon in a captivating celestial display.
Unlike Earth, where total solar eclipses are a spectacle, planets with smaller or more distant moons, such as Mars, may not experience such comprehensive eclipses.
On April 8, Earth is anticipating a total solar eclipse, during which daylight will momentarily transform into darkness as the moon obscures the sun entirely, affecting millions along a specific path across the continent.
Mars' moon Phobos, with dimensions roughly 17 miles long on its longest side, lacks the size and shape to completely cover the sun's disk, distinguishing it from the upcoming Earth eclipse. Paul Byrne, a planetary geologist at Washington University in St. Louis, shared a timelapse video of the Phobos eclipse on the social media platform X.
Over the last 18 years, various Mars rovers, including Spirit and Opportunity, have observed Phobos passing in front of the sun. Curiosity, in 2019, became the first to record video footage of this celestial event.
These eclipse observations offer scientists valuable data to measure subtle shifts in Phobos' orbit over time, shedding light on the moon's tidal forces influencing Mars' deep interior crust and mantle composition. NASA's ongoing study of these phenomena aids in understanding the resilience and materials constituting Mars' crust and mantle.
JAXA's MMX Mission To Unveil the Enigma of Phobos
Phobos, initially identified by American astronomer Asaph Hall in 1877, is an asteroid-sized moon orbiting Mars at a distance of a few thousand miles and gradually descending due to the planet's gravitational pull.
The uncertainty surrounding Phobos and its fellow Martian moon, Deimos, extends to their formation histories, leaving scientists puzzled about their origins, whether from the asteroid belt, collisions, early solar system debris, or other unknown scenarios. Despite multiple flybys, no spacecraft has yet visited Phobos.
However, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) aims to unravel its mysteries through the Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) mission in 2026, which involves collecting dust samples from Phobos for analysis on Earth. This endeavor could provide crucial insights into Phobos' formation and its role in the Martian atmosphere.
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