The Martian moon Phobos, 22 km in diameter, crossed the solar disk and caused an eclipse on the Red Planet. The event was filmed by the Perseverance rover
The Perseverance rover photographed a Martian eclipse, that is, the Moon Phobos passing in front of the Sun. 68 images were recorded by the Mastcam-Z camera, revealing the shadow of the natural satellite and its potato-shaped silhouette passing through the star .
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Eclipses on Mars are very different from those we observe on Earth, as the moons are smaller than ours. Although Phobos is larger than its companion Deimos, its average diameter does not exceed 22 km.
Orbiting the Red Planet less than six thousand kilometers above its surface, Phobos completes a rotation three times a day. Therefore, unlike the Earth-Moon system, eclipses are relatively frequent.
On the other hand, just like on Earth, each Martian eclipse is observable in different regions of the planet. In other words, the event was not always photographed by the Perseverance and Curiosity rovers, nor by InSight, when it was still active.
Once recorded, eclipses represent an opportunity to study how the tidal forces of the Martian moons can affect the planet. For example, in 2020, scientists discovered that the probe InSight had a slight tilt at the time of the eclipse you recorded.
Studying this tilt suggests that Phobos causes a small “tug” on Mars, the same gravitational mechanism that causes tides in our oceans. This will allow scientists to calculate the object’s orbit more precisely, which is important for the mission to land a probe on the small moon.
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Source: Terra
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