NASA's Curiosity Rover Just Saw 2 Eclipses on Mars! Now You Can, Too

[Judi Lynn]

By Meghan Bartels 12 minutes ago

. . .

NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars got lucky last month and spotted not one but two eclipses — in less than two weeks, one for each of the Red Planet's moons.

The result is two stunning animations of the moons crossing the sun, as well as one showing the brief darkening that the rover itself experienced during the latter of these events.

During the first event, on March 17, Curiosity watched Mars' tiny moon Deimos cross the face of the sun. From the surface of Mars, Deimos is so small in comparison to the sun that this event doesn't technically qualify as an eclipse; it is officially be called a transit instead.

The second event, on March 26, was more dramatic, a proper eclipse of Mars' larger moon, Phobos. Phobos is about 7 miles (11.5 kilometers) wide, compared to Deimos at just 1.5 miles (2.3 km) across, and Phobos is also closer to Mars than Deimos. The combination of those two factors makes its eclipse much more dramatic than Deimos' transit.

More:
https://www.space.com/curiosity-rover-sees-solar-eclipses-on-mars.html

[krispos42]

1. That was very cool indeed!