CNN Indonesia
Tuesday, 13 Feb 2024 10:53 WIB
The moment of a solar eclipse on the planet Mars was caught on NASA’s space vehicle camera. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS/SSI)
Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
Solar eclipse due to the passing of its moon Phobos Mars– in front of the Sun conjures up an epic view. Check out the appearance.
The event of Phobos crossing the Sun was recorded by NASA’s Perseverance rover on Thursday (8/2). The potato-shaped moon can be seen in front of the Sun from Perseverance’s current perch in Jezero crater.
Collect Space, technicians from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) uploaded 68 images of the solar eclipse to the Perseverance raw image repository. The footage was filmed using a Mastcam-Z camera located to the left of the probe, one of two surveillance cameras atop Perseverance’s mast that are often used to photograph the landscape of the Red Planet.
Phobos was first discovered by American astronomer Asaph Hall in 1877. Phobos is an asteroid-sized moon that orbits several thousand kilometers above the surface of Mars and continues to fall towards the planet.
Ultimately, this moon will break apart due to the gravitational force of the Red Planet.
Phobos and another Martian moon, Deimos, have an enigmatic formation history. Scientists don’t believe either came from the asteroid belt, a collision, leftover debris from the early solar system, or from another scenario.
No spacecraft has yet been able to visit Phobos, although several have made flybys over the years. However, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) plans to send the Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) mission to Phobos in 2026.
MMX’s big job will be to return samples, scooping up dust from the tiny moon and bringing the grains back to Earth. The dust could provide more clues about the history of Phobos’ formation, as well as the history of the Martian atmosphere as gas molecules flew into space and possibly onto Phobos.
Thus, MMX could help unravel the mysteries of Phobos and Mars, as scientists are still trying to figure out why the Red Planet lost so much of its atmosphere over thousands of years.
This research has implications for habitability and water on Mars, because flowing water requires a certain surface pressure. The Perseverance mission will also add to this long list of research, as it looks for signs of ancient water and habitable conditions.
Like MMX, Perseverance is also a sample return mission of sorts – but this rover will need help. NASA and the European Space Agency plan to send a Mars sample return mission to the rover area in the 2030s to retrieve samples for return to Earth.
However, the program took a major blow last week, when JPL laid off many MSR employees due to budget issues.
MSR is over schedule and over budget due to its complexity, and NASA is operating under a continuing resolution that freezes its spending at 2023 levels until Congress finalizes the US budget. The ongoing uncertainty forced JPL to lay off 8 percent of its workforce this month, laboratory officials said.
Missions to Mars from Year to Year (Photo: CNN Indonesia/Timothy Loen)
(tim/dmi)
Watch the Video Below:
2024-02-13 03:53:55
#Epic #Solar #Eclipse #Mars #Check #Appearance
