NASA ’s Perseverance rover captured a prosperous cosmic consequence on April 2 : Mars ’ clearly murphy - shaped moon Phobos eclipsing the Sun . This new video recording comes fresh off the heels of NASA ’s InSight lander catch awistful Martian sunup .
In ablog postabout the effigy , NASA explained : “ These observations can help scientist better understand the moon ’s orbit and how its gravity get out on the Martian control surface , ultimately shaping the Red Planet ’s crust and pallium . ”
Perseverance ’s Mastcam - Z camera accept the stroke , which make up the most whizz - in and highest frame charge per unit Martian eclipse video , consort to NASA . Jim Bell , principal investigator for Perseverance , described Mastcam - Z as the“main eyes”of the rover , able to take video and 3D pic .
The Martian moon Phobos passes in front of the Sun in these images from NASA’s Perseverance rover.Gif: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS/SSI
“ I knew [ the footage ] was live on to be good , but I did n’t bear it to be this awe-inspiring , ” said Rachel Howson , one of the television camera operators located at Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego , in the NASA release .
Phobos is one of Mars ’ two moons and has an median spoke of 11 km . To put that in perspective , Earth ’s Moon has anaverage radius of 1,737 kilometers . Phobos is characterized by a serial ofstreaksacross its control surface as well as a 9 - klick - encompassing volcanic crater call Stickney . In 50 million years , Phobos will either better up into a band or smash into Mars , NASAsays . Japan is plan amissionto Phobos in the mid-2020s , during which a probe would collect rock and roll samples and eventually bring them to Earth .
persistency rover is currently gearing up to start science surgical process at the delta of Jezero Crater , a place where scientist believe flow water — and mayhap microbial life history — once existed . The big hope is to findmicrofossilsamong the rock and sediment there .
InSightMarsPhobosSpacecraftSpaceflight
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