NASA’s rover named Perseverance has sent to earth stunning images of the planet Mars experiencing a solar eclipse. The images show Mars’ moon Phobos crossing the face of the sun The Trumpet gathered.
The eclipse which lasted 40 minutes, shorter than a normal solar eclipse on earth involving its moon, is said to have taken place on the 397th Martian day of the Perseverance rover on the planet.
The rover equipped with next-generation Mastcam-Z camera has been on Mars since February 2021. The images however were captured on the 2nd of April.
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Speaking, Rachel Howson of Malin Space Science Systems located in San Diego, a member of the Mastcam-Z team who operates the camera said “I knew it was going to be good, but I didn’t expect it to be this amazing”.
A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the view of the Sun from a small part of Earth, totally or partially. Such an alignment occurs approximately every six months, during the eclipse season in its new moon phase, when the Moon’s orbital plane is closest to the plane of Earth’s orbit.[1] In a total eclipse, the disk of the Sun is fully obscured by the Moon. In partial and annular eclipses, only part of the Sun is obscured. Unlike a lunar eclipse, which may be viewed from anywhere on the night side of Earth, a solar eclipse can only be viewed from a relatively small area of the world. As such, although total solar eclipses occur somewhere on Earth every 18 months on average, they recur at any given place only once every 360 to 410 years.
