The NASA rover Perseverance on Mars witnessed a “googly eye” eclipse as the moon Phobos passed in front of the Sun.
NASA recently shared a new video capturing footage from Perseverance, showcasing the potato-shaped moon moving across the Sun’s disk. Phobos appeared as a dark object against the warm light of the Sun, creating an effect resembling a “googly eye” (with Phobos as the pupil) in the Martian sky.
Phobos—one of Mars’ two moons, along with the smaller Deimos—moved between the red planet and the Sun on September 30, the 1,285th day of the Perseverance mission. At that time, the rover was situated on the western wall of the Jezero Crater on Mars, recording the eclipse using its powerful Mastcam-Z camera system.
This is not the first time Perseverance has witnessed an eclipse from Mars. In fact, due to Phobos orbiting the red planet every 7.6 hours, such events are much more common on Mars compared to eclipses on Earth.
“Because Phobos’ orbit is nearly perfectly aligned with Mars’ equator and relatively close to the planet’s surface, the moon passes in front of the Sun on most days of the year on Mars,” NASA officials stated in a release sharing the new video footage from Perseverance.
With a maximum width of only 27 km, Phobos’ diameter is about 157 times smaller than that of Earth’s Moon. Due to its rapid orbit, the transit of Phobos across the Sun typically lasts about 30 seconds. The shared video shows the eclipse in real-time, as well as a sped-up version four times faster.
The NASA Perseverance rover captured this eclipse on September 30. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS)
“As Phobos appears like a large black disk moving quickly across the surface of the Sun, its shadow, known as the antumbra, moves across the surface of the planet,” NASA announced in a press release.
In addition to Perseverance, NASA’s Curiosity and Opportunity rovers have also witnessed eclipses on Mars, where Phobos passes in front of the Sun. By documenting various eclipse events over the past 20 years, scientists can learn more about this moon and how its orbit is changing.
According to NASA, this data is particularly valuable as Phobos is gradually getting closer to Mars at a rate of 1.8 meters every 100 years. Consequently, the moon is predicted to collide with the red planet in about 50 million years.
