Small Mars moon Phobos looms large over the face of the Sun in dramatic eclipse footage captured by NASA’s Persevering Rover.
Searching for life perseverance Taking a break on April 2 from her quest to reach the ancient Red Planet River Delta ( Successful arrival there yesterday) to observe the passage of the young moon through the sun.
“These observations can help scientists better understand the moon’s orbit and how its gravity pulls the surface of Mars, ultimately forming the red planet’s crust and mantle,” according to officials at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, which runs the Perseverance mission. , He said in a statement About the new eclipse video.
There are other vehicles on Mars, such as NASA’s Curiosity Note the solar eclipse. Mission team members said the new footage from the Perseverance Mastcam-Z provides the most powerful view yet of such an event, featuring a high frame rate never before used on the surface of Mars.
“I knew it was going to be good, but I didn’t expect it to be that amazing,” Rachel Howson of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, one of the Mastcam-Z team members, said in the same statement.
Related: 12 stunning photos from the first year of the Perseverance rover on Mars
PhobosIt is about 157 times smaller than Earth’s moon, and is one of two natural satellites of Mars. other, Demos, even smaller than Phobos. Scientists believe that the two lumpy objects may be earlier asteroids that were captured by the gravity of Mars.
Phobos in file vortex of death Researchers say that over Mars, the surface of the Red Planet is likely to collide in a few tens of millions of years.
Nearly 20 years of eclipse observations like this one, taken from rovers and beyond MarsRefine the comprehension of the orbit of that slowly collapsing moon.
We also learn more about the structure of Mars from these observations. “As Phobos orbits Mars, its gravity exerts small tidal forces on the interior of the Red Planet, causing slight rock distortion in the planet’s crust and mantle,” JPL officials said in the statement. These forces are also slowly changing Phobos’ orbit. “.
They added, “As a result, geophysicists can use these changes to better understand how resilient Inside Mars It is revealing more about the materials within the crust and mantle.”
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Previous rover missions have captured Phobos and/or Deimos as they moved across the face of the Sun. JPL officials refer to Phobos observations from NASA’s twin Soul and opportunity Rovers in 2004, drafted by mission team members in Time-lapse video.
Curiosity’s improved capabilities allow the rover to do so Capture solar eclipse videosand the number of views of his eclipse now dozens. As of 2019Curiosity, Opportunity, and Spirit have collectively observed 40 eclipses by Phobos and eight solar transits by Deimos.
Perseverance’s Mastcam-Z has an additional upgrade over its predecessor’s camera systems: a sunglasses-like filter that reduces the intensity of sunlight, allowing scientists to see the bumps and hills in the Phobos chart as well as a range of sunspots on the sun. (It was the sun Active all month long As a result of sunspots like those.)
Perseverance is on a years-long mission to search for signs of ancient life on Mars, collecting and storing dozens of samples that may hold clues to the Red Planet’s creatures. NASA and the European Space Agency plan to return those samples to Earth via a re-sampling campaign within the next decade or so.
Perseverance accompanies her flights with a daring helicopter, cleverness. The small helicopter exceeded the planned flight manifest fivefold, Achieving 25 sorties to date.
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