Have you ever wondered how a solar eclipse happens on Mars? The image captured by the Perseverance spacecraft on the red planet gives us the answer to this question. NASA also shared the images of the solar eclipse on Mars with us on its twitter account.
The shared video was captured by Perseverance’s Mastcam-Z camera earlier this month. Images taken from the surface of Mars show Phobos, the potato-shaped moon of the red planet, passing in front of the sun.
Mars’ moon Phobos is 157 times smaller than the Moon!
The closest and largest of Mars’ two natural satellites, Phobos is about 27 km long. Phobos, which is 157 times smaller than the Moon, cannot offer us the solar eclipse we are used to.
The celestial body orbits about 6,000 km above the Martian surface. Phobos completes a full rotation in just 7 hours and 39 minutes. Considering that the Moon revolves around the Earth in about 27 days, we can say that this period is quite short.
Scientists plan to obtain clearer information about its orbit by observing Phobos. Seeing that Phobos is getting closer and closer to Mars, astronomers also plan to learn about Phobos and Mars’ gravity. If Phobos continues in this way, it is inevitable that it will hit Mars in the future, but it has been stated that it will take 10 million years for this to happen.
In addition to filming solar eclipses, Perseverance continues its search for evidence of ancient microbial life on the red planet. The spacecraft is also collecting rock samples on the red planet to take them back to Earth.
So what do you think about the solar eclipse on Mars? You can share your views with us in the comments section or on the SDN Forum.
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