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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."

14 of 46 comments (clear)

  1. An eclipse is NOT more common in S. hemishere by Sir_Kurt · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I don't know where the submitter or editor got his/her eclipse frequency info, but the chances of an eclipse occuring are equal for both hemispheres. If you look at a specific short enough time span, it may appear to favor one hemisphere over another, but the eclipse geometry is symmetrical. There are times that a total eclipse vs. an annular eclipse will favor one hemisphere over another because the distance of the earth from the sun varies, but over any reasonable time scale this will all average out.

    Kurt

    1. Re:An eclipse is NOT more common in S. hemishere by slashmydots · · Score: 2, Funny

      You forgot to factor in the ancient mayan priest ghosts that can control the eclipses at will.

    2. Re:An eclipse is NOT more common in S. hemishere by ArsenneLupin · · Score: 3, Funny

      More importantly, you forgot that we don't have any infinite time scale to average on, because the world only exists since a finite amount of time, and will stop existing on December 21st later this year. And during this finite timespan, the southern hemisphere did have noticably more solar eclipses!

  2. Mar's moon? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    What is this Mar they are speaking about?

  3. Eclipse, or transit? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I thought we only called it an eclipse when the occluding body is of comparable angular diameter? Phobos is something like half the solar diameter (depending on latitude); I'd call it a transit.

    1. Re:Eclipse, or transit? by Charliemopps · · Score: 5, Funny

      And you're probably the same asshat that declassified Pluto as a planet.

    2. Re:Eclipse, or transit? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      I don't know what the official rules are for the nomenclature; however how about making it this: if the observer is on a body and the occlusion is caused by a moon of said body it is an eclipse. If the occlusion is viewed from space or is caused by a body that is not orbiting the body on which the observation occurs, call it a transit.

  4. 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."

  5. Re:Mars' not Mar's by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Actually, it does, depending upon whose style manual you are using. In some style manuals, proper names ending with a single "s" take the possessive as "s'" and not "s's" for reasons of euphony; but in all style manuals, proper names ending with a double "ss" take the possessive as "ss's."

  6. PHOBOS by Iniamyen · · Score: 2

    Did anyone else read "Phobos" in the Quake 3 Arena guy's voice?

  7. itty bitty moons by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 2

    Aren't *all* eclipses of Mars partial?

  8. Re:Science? by camperdave · · Score: 2

    Just because you find it a lame, artsy shot, doesn't mean that science isn't happening. Oh, and like it or not, the only way NASA is going to get funding for future missions is by mass market appeal, and that means lame, artsy shots.

    --
    When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!