LOL
Posted on 04/20/2022 2:14:33 PM PDT by LibWhacker
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover used its Mastcam-Z camera to shoot video of Phobos, one of Mars’ two moons, eclipsing the Sun. It’s the most zoomed-in, highest-frame-rate observation of a Phobos solar eclipse ever taken from the Martian surface. ==> CLICK HERE to see a 49 second YouTube video of the eclipse
The Mastcam-Z camera recorded video of Phobos, one of the Red Planet’s two moons, to study how its orbit is changing over time.
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has captured dramatic footage of Phobos, Mars’ potato-shaped moon, crossing the face of the Sun. These observations can 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 next-generation Mastcam-Z camera on April 2, the 397th Martian day, or sol, of the mission, the eclipse lasted a little over 40 seconds – much shorter than a typical solar eclipse involving Earth’s Moon. (Phobos is about 157 times smaller than Earth’s Moon. Mars’ other moon, Deimos, is even smaller.)
The images are the latest in a long history of NASA spacecraft capturing solar eclipses on Mars. Back in 2004, the twin NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity took the first time-lapse photos of Phobos during a solar eclipse. Curiosity continued the trend with videos shot by its Mastcam camera system.
But Perseverance, which landed in February 2021, has provided the most zoomed-in video of a Phobos solar eclipse yet – and at the highest-frame rate ever. That’s thanks to Perseverance’s next-generation Mastcam-Z camera system, a zoomable upgrade from Curiosity’s Mastcam.
“I knew it was going to be good, but I didn’t expect it to be this amazing,” said Rachel Howson of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, one of the Mastcam-Z team members who operates the camera.
Howson noted that although Perseverance first sends lower-resolution thumbnails that offer a glimpse of the images to come, she was stunned by the full-resolution versions: “It feels like a birthday or holiday when they arrive. You know what’s coming, but there is still an element of surprise when you get to see the final product.”
Color also sets this version of a Phobos solar eclipse apart. Mastcam-Z has a solar filter that acts like sunglasses to reduce light intensity. “You can see details in the shape of Phobos’ shadow, like ridges and bumps on the moon’s landscape,” said Mark Lemmon, a planetary astronomer with the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, who has orchestrated most of the Phobos observations by Mars rovers. “You can also see sunspots. And it’s cool that you can see this eclipse exactly as the rover saw it from Mars.”
As Phobos circles Mars, its gravity exerts small tidal forces on the Red Planet’s interior, slightly deforming rock in the planet’s crust and mantle. These forces also slowly change Phobos’ orbit. As a result, geophysicists can use those changes to better understand how pliable the interior of Mars is, revealing more about the materials within the crust and mantle.
Scientists already know that Phobos is doomed: The moon is getting closer to the Martian surface and is destined to crash into the planet in tens of millions of years. But eclipse observations from the surface of Mars over the last two decades have also allowed scientists to refine their understanding of Phobos’ slow death spiral.
More About the Mission
A key objective for Perseverance’s 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 cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).
Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send 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 Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for the agency by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover. Arizona State University leads the operations of the Mastcam-Z instrument, working in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego.
For more about Perseverance:
mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/
LOL
Hey, I think I see the silhouette of that flag on Phobos captured in this video by Perseverance! Amazing.
Not so much an eclipse as a transit, isn’t it?
More properly, a transit.
cool pick and a waste on taxpayer $
A bit different than what we experience on Earth with a total solar eclipse ... not just the awesome sight itself ... but also that we’re here to see astronomical perfection in that the relative size of the moon and sun matches precisely their relative distance from us. Ever since childhood this truly amazing set if truly amazing “coincidences” (both the perfect mathematical syzygy and the fact we’re here to witness it) is definitive proof of a Creator.
Looks more asteroid shape than moon shape.
I’m probably wrong thinking that moons are all spherical.
I guess that if a giant rock is captured by a planet it could be considered a moon!?
Merriam-Webster - eclipse: 1a : the total or partial obscuring of one celestial body by another
On earth, at this moment in time, we're treated to a very privileged type of solar eclipse, an almost exact and total solar eclipse. Hasn't always been this way, and it won't be much longer, as the moon is slowly moving away from earth, and has been from the beginning.
Right! When a rocky asteroid, or even a mostly metallic asteroid, accumulates enough mass its gravity crushes it down into a ball. Phobos never got there.
As several commentors on Youtube said, it’s a transit, not an eclipse.
Still kind of neat to watch, though.
That’s a bad floater— need to see an optometrist.
Thank you.
yes
In astronomy, a transit (or astronomical transit) is a phenomenon when a celestial body passes directly between a larger body and the observer. As viewed from a particular vantage point, the transiting body appears to move across the face of the larger body, covering a small portion of it.[1]
The word “transit” refers to cases where the nearer object appears smaller than the more distant object.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transit_(astronomy)
Yes, thank you for putting that into words.
From NASA:
A transit is when one object crosses in front of another in space. This can happen in a lot of different ways. One example is when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun. The Moon is “transiting” the Sun. This is also called a solar eclipse.
Hey, at least she spelled NASA correctly.
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