Perseverance rover: Nasa captures incredible pics of solar eclipse on Mars

Mars moon eclipsing the SunImage source, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Nasa's Perseverance rover has managed to capture footage of this incredible Mars solar eclipse!

The event happened when Phobos - one of Mars' two moons - passed in front of the sun, creating a spectacular image.

Scientists say these observations can help them understand the moon's orbit and how its gravity works on Mars.

The Perseverance rover is on Mars looking for signs of ancient life and collecting rock samples.

Image source, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

The eclipse lasted just over 40 seconds, which is shorter than an eclipse with Earth's moon, which usually last a few minutes.

It was captured with Perseverance rover's Mastcam-Z camera, which hasn't been used on Mars before. The camera has a high frame rate giving a better quality picture.

Rachel Howson, one of the Mastcam-Z team members, said: "I knew it was going to be good, but I didn't expect it to be this amazing."

What is a solar eclipse?

A solar eclipse is when the Moon moves between the Sun and the Earth, so it blocks the Sun's light. This casts a shadow over part of the Earth.

Image source, NASA/ JPL
Image caption,

This is Phobos, one of Mars' two moons

The potato-shaped moon Phobos, is about 157 times smaller than Earth's moon.

It is the bigger of Mars' two moons, with Deimos being even smaller.

Both moons were named after ancient Greek gods.

Phobos orbits Mars three times a day and is very close to the planet's surface.

Scientists believe it's likely that it will one day crash into the Red Planet in tens of millions of years time, or break up into a ring.