A Lumpy Martian Moon Crosses the Sun in Eclipse Footage From Perseverance Rover

NASA’s Perseverance rover captured a fortunate cosmic occasion on April 2: Mars’ distinctly potato-shaped moon Phobos eclipsing the Sun. This new video comes recent off the heels of NASA’s InSight lander capturing a wistful Martian dawn.

In a blog post concerning the photos, NASA defined: “These observations can help scientists better understand the moon’s orbit and how its gravity pulls on the Martian surface, ultimately shaping the Red Planet’s crust and mantle.”

Perseverance’s Mastcam-Z digicam took the photographs, which make up probably the most zoomed-in and highest body price Martian eclipse video, in line with NASA. Jim Bell, principal investigator for Perseverance, described Mastcam-Z because the “main eyes” of the rover, capable of take video and 3D footage.

“I knew [the footage] was going to be good, but I didn’t expect it to be this amazing,” stated Rachel Howson, one of many digicam operators situated at Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, within the NASA launch.

Phobos is one in every of Mars’ two moons and has a mean radius of 11 kilometers. To put that in perspective, Earth’s Moon has an average radius of 1,737 kilometers. Phobos is characterised by a sequence of streaks throughout its floor in addition to a 9-kilometer-vast crater referred to as Stickney. In 50 million years, Phobos will both break up into a hoop or smash into Mars, NASA says. Japan is planning a mission to Phobos within the mid-2020s, throughout which a probe would acquire rock samples and finally deliver them to Earth.

Perseverance rover is presently gearing as much as start science operations on the delta of Jezero Crater, a spot the place scientists imagine flowing water—and possibly microbial life—as soon as existed. The huge hope is to search out microfossils among the many rocks and sediment there.