Martian astronomy: Percy sees a 'Phobos eclipse' from Mars
What's so special about spotting Phobos crossing in front of the sun? Sure. It's just another image of Phobos crossing the disk of the sun, as seen from the surface of Mars. Like so much of the modern space era, these images, once amazing, are now almost routine. But there's some real science behind tasking the Mars rovers to conduct a little "Martian astronomy."
On August 12, 2026, the Perseverance rover captured an image of Phobos, one of Mars' two moons, crossing in front of the sun. Though this event, known as a transit, is common and routine for modern space missions, it provides valuable scientific data. Opportunity made the first direct observation of a Martian moon transiting the sun in 2004, followed by Viking 1 in 1977 and Curiosity and Perseverance in later years.
Phobos, only 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles) above Mars' surface, orbits the planet every 7 hours and 39 minutes. Its speed allows it to cover only a quarter of the sun's apparent disk at maximum, taking less than a minute to cross. To capture the image safely, Mastcam-Z, the rover's main camera, utilized solar filters, similar to eclipse glasses, before aiming at the sun. This precaution ensures the instruments are protected from the intense solar radiation.
The transit of Phobos offers precise measurements of the moon's location, with accuracy better than 100 meters. This information refines the orbital positions of both Phobos and Deimos, the smaller Martian moon. Understanding these orbits helps researchers probe the Martian and Phobos interiors, as tides raised by Phobos on Mars cause the moon's orbit to change.
The joint JAXA/NASA Mars Moons Explorer mission, launching in 2027, will further investigate these celestial bodies by attempting to land and collect samples from Phobos, with the samples returning to Earth in the 2030s.
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- Martian Astronomy: Percy Sees a ‘Phobos Eclipse’ From Mars universetoday.com
