The Perseverance rover captured the most detailed image of a solar eclipse on Mars
A solar eclipse is not a unique event on Earth and happens on other planets that have their own moons. But it is not so often possible for terrestrial devices to capture this event.
So the spacecraft Perseverance, engaged in the study of the surface of Mars, managed to capture in detail the solar eclipse by the satellite Phobos. That's about this event and talk in the current material.
How solar eclipses help study the orbits of Mars' moons
Due to the peculiarities of the orbits of Phobos and Deimos, automatic devices located in the equatorial part of the planet can observe solar eclipses several times a year.
And for the first time, an eclipse on the Red Planet was captured by the Viking-1 apparatus. Then the eclipses were recorded by such devices as "Spirit", "Opportunity", "Curiosity", as well as the automatic station "Spirit".
And it must be said that such observations are of interest to scientists not for the sake of idle entertainment, but are needed primarily to clarify the orbits of satellites, as well as to assess the tidal dissipation of the Martian mantle.
And on April 2, 2022, another eclipse of the Sun on Mars for the first time in its history was recorded by the Perseverance rover. So, this device received the most detailed color images in the entire short history of observation.
The eclipse lasted only 40 seconds, and the event was filmed by the Mastcam-Z camera mounted on the mast of the rover, which has a solar filter in its configuration.
On the video below, you can see in some detail the relief of Phobos, which passed through the disk of the Sun. And also on the Sun itself, sunspots were noticeable, which mark its active regions.
Well, this unique event was observed not only by scientists, but also by you and me.
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