Mars Rover Captures Video Of Potato-Shaped Solar Eclipse

2022-04-23

As eclipses go, this one is pretty spectac-tuber.NASA has released dramatic video footage of Phobos, one of Mars’ two moons, crossing the face of the sun

But you’ll notice from the video above that Phobos looks more like a potato than the sphere shape typically associated with planets and moons.The footage, taken by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover on April 2, lasts a whopping 40 seconds, which NASA notes is much shorter than a typical solar eclipse involving Earth’s moon. Of course, Phobos is also 157 times smaller than Earth’s moon, as well.NASA has filmed Martian eclipses before, but experts say it’s the highest quality footage yet

“I knew it was going to be good, but I didn’t expect it to be this amazing,” Rachel Howson of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, one of the team members who operates the camera, said in a press release from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.Sadly, the chances of capturing future Phobos eclipses are declining since the moon is getting closer to the Martian surface and is destined to crash into the planet.On the bright side, scientists say that won’t happen for at least another 10 million years.

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• 2022-04-23
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