{"id":66098,"date":"2024-11-29T10:41:59","date_gmt":"2024-11-29T10:41:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/933bc65a-529b-4ea0-9974-12001e540bd1"},"modified":"2024-11-29T11:39:35","modified_gmt":"2024-11-29T11:39:35","slug":"is-this-a-googly-eye-in-space-no-its-a-solar-eclipse-on-mars-captured-by-one-of-nasas-rovers","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/is-this-a-googly-eye-in-space-no-its-a-solar-eclipse-on-mars-captured-by-one-of-nasas-rovers\/","title":{"rendered":"Is this a googly eye in space? No, it&#8217;s a solar eclipse on Mars captured by one of NASA&#8217;s rovers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"rssexcerpt\"> <\/p><p class=\"rssauthor\">By Iain Todd\n      <\/p><p class=\"rssbyline\">Published: Friday, 29 November 2024 at 10:41 AM<\/p><hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/><?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\" standalone=\"yes\"?>\n<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html> <head\/> <body> <p>This amazing image showing a bright disk with an odd-shaped silhouette is a solar eclipse on Mars, as seen by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/space-missions\/nasa-perseverance-mars-rover-facts\">NASA Perseverance rover<\/a>.<\/p> <p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/space-science\/the-moons-of-mars\">Mars has two moons<\/a>, Phobos and Deimos, and it&#8217;s the former that&#8217;s seen here passing in front of the Sun, creating the impression of a &#8216;googly eye&#8217; in space.<\/p> <figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\"> <div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Perseverance Captures \u2018Googly Eye\u2019 Transit of Phobos\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/iCSLW_EQQDs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/> <\/div> <\/figure> <p>The image was captured by the rover\u2019s Mastcam-Z instrument on 30 September 2024, the 1,285th Martian day of its mission.<\/p> <p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/news\/nasa-perseverance-rover-launches-mission-mars\">Perseverance\u00a0launched<\/a> from Earth on 30 July 2020 and landed on Mars on 18 February 2021 in Jezero Crater.<\/p> <div class=\"wp-block-columns highlight-box is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-3 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-4\"> <div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"> <h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-heading\"><strong><strong>More on Mars<\/strong><\/strong><\/h3> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/space-science\/mars-tadpole-craters\"><em><strong>Mars&#8217;s strange tadpole craters<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/li> <li><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/news\/ancient-lakes-confirmed-on-mars\">Ancient lakes on Mars<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/li> <li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/space-science\/why-is-mars-red\"><em><strong>Why is Mars red?<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/li> <\/ul> <\/div> <div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"> <figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">  <figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"> Credit: X-ray: NASA\/CXC\/Univ. of Chicago\/S.C. Mackey et al.; Radio: NRF\/SARAO\/MeerKAT; Image Processing: NASA\/CXC\/SAO\/N. Wolk <\/figcaption> <\/figure> <\/div> <\/div> <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Phobos transits on Mars<\/strong><\/h2> <figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full has-lightbox\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"674\" src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/11\/mars-phobos-transit.jpg\" alt=\"Mars's moon Phobo passing in front of the Sun, 30 September 2024, as seen by NASA's Perseverance rover. Credit: NASA\" class=\"wp-image-165013\"\/> <figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"> Mars&#8217;s moon Phobo passing in front of the Sun, 30 September 2024, as seen by NASA&#8217;s Perseverance rover. Credit: NASA <\/figcaption> <\/figure> <p>Phobos and Deimos are named after the Greek words for &#8216;fear&#8217; and &#8216;dread&#8217;, respectively, and their names come from Greek mythology.<\/p> <p>Phobos is about 157 times smaller in diameter than Earth\u2019s Moon, and just 27 kilometres (17 miles) at its widest point.<\/p> <p>This Phobos transit occurred as the moon passed between the Sun and Mars, from the perspective of the rover&#8217;s location on the Red Planet.<\/p> <figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"720\" height=\"720\" src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2022\/02\/solar-eclipse-mars.jpeg\" alt=\"A view of a total solar eclipse on Mars. NASA's Perseverance rover captured this image of Mars's moon Phobos passing in front of the Sun on 20 April 2022. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/ASU\/MSSS\/SSI\" class=\"wp-image-147492\"\/> <figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"> NASA&#8217;s Perseverance rover captured this image of Mars&#8217;s moon Phobos passing in front of the Sun on 20 April 2022. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/ASU\/MSSS\/SSI <\/figcaption> <\/figure> <p>Phobos orbits Mars nearly exactly in line with Mars&#8217;s equator and close to the planet\u2019s surface, so these transits happen most days of the Martian year.<\/p> <p>But any would-be eclipse chasers on Mars have to be quick: Phobos&#8217;s rapid orbit of just 7.6 hours means a transit of Phobos lasts about 30 seconds.<\/p> <p>Images of transits like these enable planetary scientists to learn more about Phobos&#8217;s orbit around Mars, and for good reason.<\/p> <p>The moon is getting closer to Mars and is predicted to crash into the Red Planet in about 50 million years.<\/p> <p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/\"><strong>www.nasa.go<\/strong><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>v<\/strong><\/a><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Iain Todd Published: Friday, 29 November 2024 at 10:41 AM This amazing image showing a bright disk with an odd-shaped silhouette is a solar eclipse on Mars, as seen by the NASA Perseverance rover. Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos, and it&#8217;s the former that&#8217;s seen here passing in front of the Sun, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":66099,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/11\/is-this-a-googly-eye-in-space-no-its-a-solar-eclipse-on-mars-captured-by-one-of-nasas-rovers.jpg",1200,674,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/11\/is-this-a-googly-eye-in-space-no-its-a-solar-eclipse-on-mars-captured-by-one-of-nasas-rovers-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/11\/is-this-a-googly-eye-in-space-no-its-a-solar-eclipse-on-mars-captured-by-one-of-nasas-rovers-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/11\/is-this-a-googly-eye-in-space-no-its-a-solar-eclipse-on-mars-captured-by-one-of-nasas-rovers-768x431.jpg",768,431,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/11\/is-this-a-googly-eye-in-space-no-its-a-solar-eclipse-on-mars-captured-by-one-of-nasas-rovers-1024x575.jpg",800,449,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/11\/is-this-a-googly-eye-in-space-no-its-a-solar-eclipse-on-mars-captured-by-one-of-nasas-rovers.jpg",1200,674,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/11\/is-this-a-googly-eye-in-space-no-its-a-solar-eclipse-on-mars-captured-by-one-of-nasas-rovers.jpg",1200,674,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Iain Todd Published: Friday, 29 November 2024 at 10:41 AM This amazing image showing a bright disk with an odd-shaped silhouette is a solar eclipse on Mars, as seen by the NASA Perseverance rover. Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos, and it&#8217;s the former that&#8217;s seen here passing in front of the Sun,&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/66098"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}