Solar Eclipse on Mars: Captured by NASA’s Curiosity

NASA’s Curiosity has sent the pictures of the two solar eclipse that seemed to have taken place on the two moons of the Mars- Phobos and Deimos. The news have been published on April 5. NASA had captured the images of the eclipse by the Mast Camera in which one can look at the Sun directly. It has been reported that the picture of the Phobos was captured on March 26 and that of Deimos was taken on March 17. They have informed that Phobos was nearly 11.7 km across and Deimos was nearly 2.3 km across when the photography was done.

The eclipse that was seen on Phobos was considered as the annular eclipse because it did not covered the Sun completely. Scientists informed that the size of the Deimos was very small due to which it was transiting the Sun. While capturing the picture of the eclipses, NASA’s Curiocity has also found the shadow of the Phobos which was captured on March 25.

Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University said that these events had made Mars relatable. NASA landed on Mars in 2012 just to observed the environmental condition and assure that whether lives will be possible on Mars or not. Up to now 40 eclipse were observed in Phobos and 8 in Deimos by either Spirit, Opportunity or Curiosity. Mark Lemmon also said that by the time, with many more observations, we will get more details of each orbits which keeps changing by the gravitational pull of the planets.

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