Mars’ death-spiraling moon captured in gorgeous eclipse video

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NASA ’s Perseverance roamer has captured the cleared ever footage of asolar eclipseover Mars , and the answer are out of this world .

The rover snapped the ethereal video ofMars’potato - shaped moon , Phobos , moving across the human face of thesunon April 2 . During the occultation , Phobos projected its uneven shadow over the Martian surface — appearing almost as though it was the pupil of a mammoth eyeball pealing in its socket .

Mars� moon Phobos crosses the face of the sun, captured by NASA’s Perseverance rover with its Mastcam-Z camera. The faint black specks to the bottom left are sunspots.

Mars' moon Phobos crosses the face of the sun, captured by NASA’s Perseverance rover with its Mastcam-Z camera. The faint black specks to the bottom left are sunspots.

Perseverance put down the footage midway through its journeying to a river delta on Mars ’ 28 - mile - wide ( 45 kilometers ) Jezero Crater , where it will explore for grounds of life on the Red Planet . Training its state - of - the - prowess Mastcam - Z camera on the sky , the rover recorded the misshapen moon ’s solar transit with the neat rapid climb and at the highest framerate ever .

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" I knew it was going to be good , but I did n’t expect it to be this amazing , " Rachel Howson , a mission surgery specialist at Malin Space Science Systems and one of the Mastcam - Z team members who operates the camera , said in a command .

A photo of the Blue Ghost lunar lander on the surface of the moon bathed in a red light

Phobos , named after the Greek god of reverence , is around 157 times smaller thanEarth ’s moon and is one of Mars ' two born satellites , alongside the even smaller Deimos ( whose name comes from the Greek graven image of apprehensiveness ) .

Scientists consider that the brother moons were once roaming asteroids that were snared into Mars ’ orbit by the planet ’s gravitational field . The orbits of these wrapped asteroids are unstable , according to investigator , and scientists predict that in a few tens of million of year ' prison term Deimos will spin out into distance while Phobos will slam into Mars ’ surface .

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investigator have been making eclipse watching of Phobos from the Martian control surface since 2004 , when the twinned NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity snapped the first clip - oversight photos of the moonlight ’s passage . Similar observations were made by NASA ’s other activeMars rover , Curiosity , in 2019 . These earlier images were not very elaborated and were read in black-market and white , but Perserverance ’s improved Mastcam - Z enable scientists to take the first gloss images of the occultation . Mastcam - Z is also equip with a solar filter , which reduces the loudness of incoming light and enables scientist to entrance never - before - seen detail .

An artist�s illustration of long ribbon-like auroras rippling across the Martian sky

" you may see details in the shape of Phobos ’ shadow , like ridges and bulge on the moon ’s landscape , " Mark Lemmon , a planetary astronomer with the Space Science Institute in Boulder , Colorado , say in the statement . " you’re able to also see sunspots . And it ’s cool that you’re able to see this occultation exactly as the wanderer saw it from Mars . " sunspot have beenswarming the sun ’s surfacerecently following an step-up in solar activity , which havelaunched plasma wavesat Earth’smagnetic subject area .

NASA is n’t just eclipse - catch for the pretty images . make observations of Phobos ’ track around Mars is lively for meliorate scientific sympathy of the cursed moon ’s death volute . Studying occultation footage aid scientist observe the gravitational force-out between Mars and Phobos , and can supply information on the satellite ’s DoI and the tidal force shaping its impertinence and mantle . The same forces also roleplay on Phobos to subtly affect its electron orbit .

tenacity is a cardinal part of NASA ’s $ 2.7 billion Mars 2020 mission , which , alongside the Curiosity scouter , is searching for signs of ancientlife on Mars ’ open by garner dozens of rock samples for eventual replication to Earth over the next decade . The rover is accompany by the Ingenuity helicopter , which has so far made 25 flights over Mars .

Looped video footage of two dust devils merging on Mars

primitively published on Live Science .

Looped video footage of a large shadow moving across North America

an image taken by the PUNCH satellites showing the moon with the sun blocked out by occulters

Mars in late spring. William Herschel believed the light areas were land and the dark areas were oceans.

This image from CaSSIS aboard the ExoMars TGO reveals an impact crater on Mars that looks like a tree stump.

NASA�s Curiosity Mars rover used two different cameras to create this selfie in front of a rock outcrop named Mont Mercou, which stands 20 feet (6 meters) tall.

A "selfie" of Zhurong and its lander captured by a deployed remote camera.

NASA�s Perseverance rover captured this shot of its surroundings on the floor of Jezero Crater on Oct. 22, 2021, using one of its navigation cameras. Mission team members posted the image on Twitter three days later.

NASA�s Curiosity rover took this selfie while inside Mars� Gale crater on June 15, 2018, which was the 2,082nd Martian day, or sol, of the rover�s mission.