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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."

5 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

  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.

  4. 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."