Even Mars rovers like to chase solar eclipses.
On September 30, NASA’s Persistence rover turned its left Mastcam-Z camera skyward and photographed a solar eclipse from Marchcapturing the planet’s moon Phobos partial blocking of the sun’s disc.
In the series of photographs, one can clearly see the shape of Phobos, which resembles a lumpy potato. Phobos, the larger of Mars’ two small moons, is not spherical like our own moon — or many moons in ours the solar systemfor that matter – but rather irregular as one asteroid.
Measuring about 17 miles by 14 miles by 11 miles (27 by 22 by 18 kilometers), this Phobos orbits Mars at an unusually close distance—only 3,700 miles (6,000 km). By comparison, our Moon orbits at an average distance of 238,855 miles (384,400 km) from Land. And Phobos is a fast mover, completing three orbits of Mars in a single day.
Related: What is a solar eclipse?
Although Phobos may look like an asteroid, it probably isn’t one. In fact, the origin of Phobos is one of the moon’s greatest mysteries. Some scientists have ruled out Phobos as a captured asteroid for one main reason – its orbit around Mars is almost perfect. If Mars’ gravity had captured a passing asteroid, the abducted object would likely have an irregular orbit.
Current theories about The origin of Phobos and his companion moon, Deimosinvolves some form of accretion, whether from material left behind when Mars formed or from a catastrophic collision between the red planet and another celestial body.
Perseverance’s latest photo series of Phobos isn’t the first time the rover has imaged a solar eclipse; it also photographed the elongated moon passing into the sun April 2022 and February 2024.
And in fact, Perseverance wasn’t even the first rover to imagine such an event. NASA’s twin Spirit and Opportunity rovers observed the Phobos solar transit in 2004, while Curiosity recorded the first video of one in 2019. See? Rovers really love chasing solar eclipses!