It is a solar eclipse for the less original that the rover proposes to us to discover Perseverance.
Remember that the Perseverance rover has been roaming the plains of the planet Mars for a little over a year now.
A solar eclipse captured… from Mars!
If observing an eclipse is a phenomenon that is both rare and fascinating on Earth, the fact of seeing one from another planet was until recently pure astronomer’s fantasy. However, at the beginning of April, the Perseverance robot was able to film the passage of the moon Phobos in front of the Sun, and all this, from the planet Mars.
It was via its Mastcam-Z camera that the little robot was able to capture these rather fascinating few seconds of video. Obviously, it is not a total eclipse, similar to what we have experienced in the past, the moon Phobos displaying “only” 26 km by 18, but the star could however have hidden the Sun given its proximity to Mars (less than 10,000 km separate them).
Ultimately, remember that the star Phobos is destined to crash into the planet Mars, the small satellite slowly but surely approaching the red planet. However, there is little chance that we will be able to witness this spectacle, since it should happen… in about 30 million years.
On the same subject :
One year already ! The Perseverance rover has blown the first candle of its life on Mars
Source : Mashable
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