One rover on Mars has captured remarkable footage of a solar eclipse
One of Mars’ moons, Phobos, was spotted passing across the sun by NASA’s Perseverance rover.
The 40-second eclipse was recorded by the rover’s Mastcam-Z camera system.
But the event is only a partial solar eclipse due to the moon’s size.
Although Phobos is Mars’ largest moon it is too small in size for a total eclipse.
Other solar eclipses have been captured on Mars previously but this is the “most zoomed-in video of a Phobos solar eclipse yet – and at the highest-frame rate ever”.
The new camera allows for zoomable colour camera and has a solar filter “that acts like sunglasses to reduce light intensity”.
The footage also serves a scientific purpose allowing researchers to study Phobos’ orbit and its relationship to Mars.
The planet’s gravity pulls the moon towards itself and changes its orbit with Phobos moving 6 feet closer to Mars every century.
It’s expect that Phobos will eventually be pulled apart in the next tens of millions of years.
