The Perseverance rover captured a solar eclipse on Mars when the moon Phobos partially covered our star on September 30, Live Science reported, BTA reported.
In the series of photos sent, Phobos is clearly visible covering the sun’s disk. The shape of the moon is characteristic – it is not round, like the rest of the natural satellites in the solar system, but looks more like an asteroid and is compared to a potato.
Neither Phobos nor Mars’ other moon, Deimos, can completely cover the Sun as seen from the Red Planet. Phobos measures approximately 127 by 22 by 18 kilometers.
Phobos orbits Mars at an extremely close distance – only 6000 km. By comparison, our Moon’s orbit is at an average distance of 384,400 km from Earth. Phobos is also nimble and completes three orbits of Mars in one day.
The photo of the solar eclipse taken by Perseverance is not the first of its kind. He himself photographed Phobos passing in front of the Sun in April 2022 and February 2024.
NASA’s Spirit and Opportunity rovers observed solar eclipses from Mars in 2004, and Curiosity in 2019.