Perseverance has caught a mythologic solar eclipse on Mars as the funky - shaped moon Phobos fleet the Sun . The dramatic footage depict Phobos in all its spud - esque glory as it cut a rapid wrapping across our star .
bird of passage on Mars have watched many eclipse by both Phobos and Mars ’s other Sun Myung Moon , Deimos – but thanks to Percy ’s snazzy photographic camera , NASA say this is the most zoom - in Phobos eclipse ever snapped from the surface of Mars , at the highest human body - rate yet .
“ I know it was going to be good , but I did n’t expect it to be this amazing , ” said Rachel Howson of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego , one of the Mastcam - Z team member who operates the camera , in astatement .
take on April 2 , Perseverance ’s 397th colloidal suspension , the whole matter only took 40 seconds – much short than on Earth , where solar eclipses average 2.5 - 3 minute – but then Phobos is 157 times smaller than our Moon ( and Deimos is even small ) .
Phobos is just 22.2 kilometre ( 13.8 miles ) across and is unusual for a multitude of reason . It ’s the closelipped orbiting lunation in the Solar System , completing an cranial orbit of Mars in just seven hours at a distance of just 9,000 kilometre ( 5,600 miles ) . It hasone titan craterand a strangechain of cratersacross its Earth’s surface , and , along with Deimos , may have beenpart of a larger moon – or achunk of the Red Planetitself .
Perseverance ’s Mastcam - Z tv camera is the next generation from Curiosity ’s , having a solar filter and being highly zoomable – perfect for photographing eclipses as the filter act like sunglasses , dilute the intensity of the sunlight .
“ you may see details in the shape of Phobos ’ shadow , like ridges and bumps on the lunation ’s landscape , ” said Mark Lemmon , who has organise most of the Phobos observations by Mars rovers . “ you’re able to also see sunspots . And it ’s cool that you could see this occultation on the dot as the wanderer saw it from Mars . ”
The detail captured will help scientist better understand the Sun Myung Moon ’s orbit and how its soberness affects the interior of Mars . The moon ’s tidal forces pull on the interior of the planet and its crust and mantle , and each time an eclipse is observed , it helps scientist register the insidious shift in Phobos ’s orbit over prison term .
Phobos is actually on a slow track to devastation , set to jar with Mars in tens of millions of year . Recording the subtle shift in Phobos ’s orbit permit uranologist to refine predictions of when this may be . Until then , it has enough more mesmerizing eclipse in it , ones that we will hopefully be able to catch in undecomposed and better detail .
