From the sea – Phobos, the Moon on the planet Mars crosses the Sun. Dramatically recorded solar eclipse on Mars NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover using the Mastcam-Z camera.
Phobos is one of two natural satellites (Moon) on Mars. The other moon on Mars is called Deimos.
Collect Nasa.govthe Mastcam-Z camera recorded a video of Phobos, to study how its orbit changed over time.
The Mars rover Perseverance has captured dramatic footage of Phobos, Mars’ potato-shaped moon, as it crosses the Sun.
These observations could 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.
Captured with Perseverance’s Mastcam-Z camera on April 2, the 397th Martian day of the mission, the eclipse lasted more than 40 seconds.
These solar eclipses are much shorter than normal solar eclipses involving the Moon on Earth.
Phobos is about 157 times smaller than Earth’s Moon. Moon Deimos, even smaller.
The images are the latest in NASA’s long history of capturing solar eclipse on Mars.
Back in 2004, NASA’s twin rover Spirit and Opportunity took the first time-lapse photo of Phobos during a solar eclipse.
Curiosity continues the trend with videos captured with the Mastcam camera system.
But Perseverance, which lands in February 2021, has provided an enlarged video of Phobos’ solar eclipse – and on frame rate highest ever.
This is thanks to Perseverance’s next-generation Mastcam-Z camera system, an expandable improvement over Mastcam Curiosity.
“I knew it was going to be great, but I didn’t expect it to be so great,” said Rachel Howson of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, a member of the Mastcam-Z team operating the camera, quoted from Nasa.gov.
Howson noted that although Perseverance first sent out a lower-resolution thumbnail that offered a glimpse of the images to come, Howson was stunned by the full-resolution version.
“It was like a birthday or a holiday when they arrived. You know what’s coming, but there’s still an element of surprise when you see the final product.”
Colors also distinguish this version of Phobos’ solar eclipse. The Mastcam-Z has a solar filter that acts like sunglasses to reduce light intensity.
“You can see details in the shape of Phobos’ shadow, such as ridges and mounds in the lunar landscape,” said Mark Lemmon, planetary astronomer from Space Science Institute of Boulder, Colorado.
It was Lemmon who had orchestrated most of Mars’ observations of Phobos.
“You can also see sunspots. And it’s cool that you can see this eclipse exactly the way the rover is seeing from Mars.”
As Phobos orbits Mars, its gravity exerts a small tidal force on the Red Planet’s interior, slightly changing the shape of the rocks in the planet’s crust and mantle.
This power also slowly changes Phobos’ orbit. As a result, geophysicists can use those changes to better understand how flexible the Martian interior is and reveal more about the material in the crust and mantle.
Scientists already know that Phobos is destined to get closer and closer to the surface of Mars. This natural satellite is expected to hit the planet in tens of millions of years.
But observations of eclipses from the Martian surface over the past two decades have also allowed scientists to refine their understanding of Phobos’ slow death spiral.
Perseverance Mission
The main goal of the Perseverance mission on Mars is astrobiology. Including the search for signs of ancient microbial life.
The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and store Martian rock and regolite. Like shards of rock and dust.
NASA’s next mission, in collaboration with ESA (European Space Agency), will send a spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s exploratory approach to Mars, which includes the Artemis mission that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, run for the agency by Caltech in Pasadena, California, builds and manages the Perseverance rover operation.
Arizona State University lead the operation of the Mastcam-Z instrument, in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego.
Source: Nasa.gov
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