Phobos isn’t any slowpoke. Given its measurement, angle, and orbital sample, the moon makes a full-circle round Mars roughly as soon as each 7.6 hours. This frequency additionally makes it way more more likely to cross in entrance of the Solar in comparison with Earth’s photo voltaic eclipses. In case you had been hypothetically on the proper location on the proper time on Mars, you possibly can glimpse the small, potato-shaped satellite tv for pc briefly turning the Solar into a large googly eye. NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover captured simply such an occasion again in February—and it managed to {photograph} one other eclipse barely seven months later.
NASA recently showcased the most recent Phobos eclipse seen on September thirtieth from the rover’s vantage level on Mars’ Jezero Crater. As soon as once more, the googly eye’s lifespan lasted barely 30 seconds, making Earth’s minutes-long eclipse occasions appear prolonged compared. Like its final documentation, the Phobos footage was captured utilizing Perseverance’s Mastcam-Z, an instrument co-designed and overseen by Arizona State College.
Astronomer Asaph Corridor discovered the two Martian moons in 1877, naming them Phobos and Deimos after the dual Greek gods of worry and dread. Whereas their origins are nonetheless unclear, specialists theorize the pair originated both as asteroids that received caught by Mars’ gravitational pull, or as particles leftover from the Photo voltaic System’s formation.
[Related: A Martian solar eclipse turns the sun into a giant googly eye.]
At simply 17-miles-wide, Phobos is about 157 instances smaller than Earth’s moon—though each are slowly touring in reverse instructions. Whereas the moon is at the moment transferring additional away from Earth at a fee of about 1.5 inches per 12 months, each Phobos and Deimos are being drawn nearer to Mars by an estimated six ft each century. At that tempo, the moons are predicted to both smash into their host planet in about 50 million years, or fragment into numerous smaller items to kind a Saturn-like ring.
Till then, nonetheless, there can be loads extra googly eye alternatives for Perseverance—and maybe, sooner or later, human guests—to doc.
