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Curiosity Rover Sees Solar Eclipse On Mars

Posted by samzenpus on from the differenet-view dept.

SchrodingerZ writes "Though solar eclipses are fairly common on Earth (much more in the southern hemisphere), yesterday the Mars Curiosity Rover caught sight of a partial solar eclipse in Gale Crater on the Red planet. The martian moon Phobos took a small bite out of the sun on the 37th day (Sol 37) of the rover's martian mission. The Curiosity Rover was able to take a picture of the rare event through a 'neutral density filter that reduced the sunlight to a thousandth of its natural intensity.' This protects the camera from the intense light rays seen during an eclipse or looking directly at the sun. It is possible a short movie of the event could be compiled from the data in the near future. More solar transits of Mars's moon (including the second moon Deimos) are predicted to happen in the days to come."

3 of 46 comments (clear)

  1. Eclipses viewed from MER by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 3, Informative

    Every location on Mars gets an eclipse by both Phobos and Deimos twice a year.

    It's nice that Curiosity is looking into the sky, but it's worth pointing out that this is by no means the first time we've watched eclipses from the surface of Mars-- we've caught both Phobos and Deimos transiting the sun, from both of the the MER rovers:
    Spirit http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~lemmon/mer/phobos_transit_104a.gif
    and Opportunity http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~lemmon/mer/Phobos_Sol45B.gif

    A nice page from 2006 is here: http://www.bibalex.org/eclipse2006/MarsEclipses.htm

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
    1. Re:Eclipses viewed from MER by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Every location on Mars gets an eclipse by both Phobos and Deimos twice a year.

      You can't even see Phobos from the polar regions (> 70 degrees or so) -- it's always below the horizon -- so how can it eclipse anything?

      And the morons mod your crap to +4... gotta love /.

    2. Re:Eclipses viewed from MER by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      A nice page from 2006 is here: http://www.bibalex.org/eclipse2006/MarsEclipses.htm

      Every location on Mars gets an eclipse by both Phobos and Deimos twice a year.

      Dude, re-read your link.

      A nice page from 2006 is here: http://www.bibalex.org/eclipse2006/MarsEclipses.htm

      "The two moons pass between Mars and the Sun so frequently that solar eclipses would not be a rare event to the Martian observer. Phobos eclipses the Sun 1,300 times a year; but the eclipses are so brief, lasting about 20 seconds!"

      "As the orbits of Phobos and Deimos lie near the plane of Mars' equator, and due to the proximity of the moons to Mars, Phobos (and its eclipses) cannot be seen above Martian latitude 69, and Deimos (and its eclipses) cannot be seen above latitude 82."