NASA's Perseverance rover recently captured the astonishing image of the Martian potato-shaped satellite Phobos skimming the surface of the sun. It is reported that this annular eclipse occurred on the 397th Martian day of the Perseverance Mars rover, lasting slightly more than 40 seconds.
The Perseverance rover, which has reportedly been on Mars since February 2021, filmed the annular eclipse on April 2 this year with a new generation of Maskcam-Z cameras.
Screenshot of a video of an annular solar eclipse on Mars taken by the Perseverance Mars rover.
Rachel Howson of Marin Space Science Systems in San Diego, one of the Maxcam-Z team members who operate the camera, said she "didn't expect" the footage to be so stunning.
Phobos is the larger of Mars' two moons, with a diameter of 17 x 14 x 11 miles (27 x 22 x 18 km). It orbits Mars three times a day and is so close to the surface that it can't always be seen in some places on Mars.
Perseverance Mars rover.
This annular eclipse occurred on the 397th Martian day of the Perseverance Mars rover and lasted just over 40 seconds. That's much shorter than a typical eclipse involving Earth's moon — not surprising, since Phobos is about 157 times smaller than the moon.
While previous rovers — including Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity — have taken photos of eclipses on Mars, perseverance's footage is the most amplified Phobos eclipse video to date.
Mark Lemmon, a planetary astronomer at the Institute of Space Science in Boulder, Colorado, said the photos show details of Phobos's shadow shape, and sunspots can be seen, "which is cool."
NASA hopes the footage will help scientists better understand the dynamics between Phobos and Mars.
Phobos appearance.
When Phobos orbits Mars, its gravitational pull exerts tiny tidal forces on the interior of Mars, slightly deforming the rocks in Mars' crust and mantle.
NASA said these interactions also slowly changed Phobos' orbit. As a result, geophysicists can use these changes to better understand the flexibility of Mars' interior, revealing more about the crust and mantle.
However, scientists have long known that Phobos will eventually crash. The satellite is currently approaching Mars at a speed of 6 feet (1.8 meters) every 100 years. At this rate, it will fall on Mars in 50 million years, or disintegrate into a ring.
Text/Nandu reporter Chen Lin