Even Mars rovers love to chase sun eclipses. On Sept. 30, NASA’s Perseverance rover became its Left Mastcam-Z digicam towards the sky and photographed a sun eclipse from Mars, shooting the planet’s moon Phobos in part blocking off the solar’s disk. Within the sequence of images, you’ll distinctly see the form of Phobos, which resembles a lumpy potato. Phobos, which is the bigger of Mars’ two tiny moons, is not round like our personal moon — or many moons in our sun gadget, for that topic — however fairly abnormal like an asteroid.
Phobos starts crossing the sun disk all the way through the eclipse of Sept. 30, 2024. (Symbol credit score: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)Measuring kind of 17 miles by means of 14 miles by means of 11 miles (27 by means of 22 by means of 18 kilometers), this Phobos orbits Mars at an exceptionally shut distance — simply 3,700 miles (6,000 km). By way of comparability, our moon circles at a median distance of 238,855 miles (384,400 km) from Earth. And Phobos is a quick mover, finishing 3 orbits of Mars in one day.Similar: What’s a sun eclipse?Whilst Phobos may appear to be an asteroid, it most probably is not one. In truth, the foundation of Phobos is among the moon’s largest mysteries. Some scientists have dominated out Phobos as a captured asteroid for one primary explanation why — its orbit round Mars is just about best possible. If Mars’ gravitational pull had snagged a passing asteroid, the kidnapped object most probably would have an abnormal orbit.Present theories in regards to the foundation of Phobos and its spouse moon, Deimos, revolve round some type of accretion, whether or not that is from leftover subject matter as Mars shaped or from a cataclysmic collision between the Crimson Planet and some other celestial frame. Breaking house information, the most recent updates on rocket launches, skywatching occasions and extra!
Neither Phobos nor its spouse moon, Deimos, can totally block out the solar from the viewpoint of a viewer at the Martian floor. So rovers can handiest ever noticed partial eclipses. (Symbol credit score: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)Perseverance’s fresh picture sequence of Phobos is not the primary time the rover has imaged a sun eclipse; it additionally photographed the rectangular moon transiting the solar in April 2022 and February 2024. And, in truth, Perseverance wasn’t even the primary rover to symbol such an tournament. NASA’s dual Spirit and Alternative rovers seen Phobos sun transits in 2004, whilst Interest recorded the primary video of 1 in 2019. See? Rovers in reality do love chasing sun eclipses!
