NASA’s Perseverance rover captured the silhouette of Phobos — the larger and inside the two pure satellites of Mars — as a result of it handed in entrance of the Photo voltaic on September 30, 2024, the 1,285th Martian day, or Sol, of the mission.
Perseverance captured the silhouette of Phobos as a result of it handed in entrance of the Photo voltaic on September 30, 2024. Image credit score rating: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU / MSSS.
Phobos was discovered along with its smaller companion, Deimos, by the American astronomer Asaph Hall in 1877.
It orbits Mars about 6,000 km (3,700 miles) from the ground and completes an orbit in merely 7 hours and 39 minutes.
Phobos orbits so close to the Martian ground that the curvature of the planet would obscure its view from an observer standing inside the planet’s polar areas.
Its orbital interval is about 3 events faster than the rotation interval of the planet, with the weird finish end result amongst pure satellites that Phobos rises inside the west and items inside the east as seen from Mars.
Phobos has dimensions of 26 x 22 x 18 km (16.2 x 13.7 x 11.2 miles) and a extremely lumpy look. It moreover has impression craters and grooves on its ground.
“From its perch on the western wall of Mars’ Jezero crater, Perseverance not too way back spied a ‘googly eye’ peering down from home,” NASA scientists acknowledged in an announcement.
“The pupil on this celestial gaze is the Martian moon Phobos, and the iris is our Photo voltaic.”
Captured by the rover’s Mastcam-Z on September 30, the event happened when Phobos handed straight between the Photo voltaic and a few extent on the Martian ground, obscuring an enormous part of the Photo voltaic’s disk.
On the same time that Phobos appeared as an enormous black disk shortly shifting all through the face of the Photo voltaic, its shadow, or antumbra, moved all through the planet’s ground.
“Ensuing from its quick orbit, a transit of Phobos typically lasts solely 30 seconds or so,” the researchers acknowledged.
This is not the first time {{that a}} NASA rover has witnessed Phobos blocking the Photo voltaic’s rays.
Perseverance has captured a lot of transits of the small moon since landing at Mars’ Jezero crater in February 2021.
Curiosity captured a video in 2019; and Various captured an image in 2004.
“By evaluating the various images, we’ll refine our understanding of the moon’s orbit to be taught the best way it’s altering,” the scientists acknowledged.
“Phobos is getting nearer to Mars and is predicted to collide with it in about 50 million years.”