The Perseverance rover on Mars recorded the potato-shaped moon of Phobos crossing in front of the Sun last week—a Martian eclipse.
The rover was able to snap 68 images of the February 8th transit from its vantage point in the Jezero Crater, many of which unmistakably looked like classic, stick-on googly eyes, points out a science writer.
“Each time these eclipses are observed, they allow scientists to measure subtle shifts in Phobos’ orbit over time,” NASA wrote.
The pictures were captured using the rover’s left Mastcam-Z camera, usually used to take panoramic views of the Martian landscape.
Scientists will be able to use the data captured to study Phobos, named after the ancient Greek god of fear. Phobos is on a collision course with Mars, nearing the Red Planet at a rate of six feet (1.8 meters) every hundred years.
At that rate, the moon will either crash into Mars in 50 million years or break up into a ring.
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“The result arguably resembles more googly eye than awe-inspiring [sic] cosmic calendar occurrence,” wrote Andrew Paul at Pop-Sci.
Spot on Andrew.
Previous eclipses have been recorded on video, such as in April of 2022 when a 40-second recording was made by the same rover.
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