Solar eclipses on Earth consist of round images. The sun is round; The moon is round. On Mars, the situation seems a little different.
NASA’s Perseverance rover captured images of a solar eclipse in which the red planet’s potato-shaped moon Phobos cuts off the sun by covering an irregular part of the solar disk.
Space enthusiasts spotted the eclipse in raw images taken by the rover on November 18. Planetary scientist Paul Byrne likened the image to “an eye.”
This isn't a googly eye.
This is a partial solar eclipse, seen from the surface of Mars on Friday. pic.twitter.com/5DTasxUYAc
— Paul Byrne (@ThePlanetaryGuy) November 20, 2022
Image processor Kevin Gill combined the footage into a short video showing Phobos moving across the sun to give us on Earth a good idea of what an eclipse would look like on the Martian surface.
Phobos is one of two moons orbiting Mars. Its surface is full of craters and troughs and is only 27 kilometers wide at its widest. This month it orbits pretty close to Mars on a path that will likely one day vanish from stress. But this extinction will likely occur millions of years later.
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