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19 March 2004

A solar eclipse from Mars

The Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity are photographing much more than landscapes, craters, rocks and sand as they explore the red planet. Both robots have also made many images of the sky and Sun.

So far the robots have captured at least two solar eclipses. The moons that orbit Mars are much too small to block the entire solar disk, so Mars does not experience total solar eclipses. In fact, Earth is the only planet in the solar system having a moon that can block the entire solar disk.

The panel below shows three views of the eclipse that occurred when the moon Phobos passed between the Sun and the rover Opportunity on Sol 45. A Jet Propulsion Laboratory press release stated that these and other views of solar eclipses from Mars will allow astronomers to refine their knowledge of the orbit and position of Phobos and other martian moons. This new information may permit present and future spacecraft to acquire better images of martian moons.

These images from Mars of the solar eclipse caused by Phobos were made by the panoramic camera on the rover Opportunity on Sol 45. See http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/opportunity/20040311a.html. This panel is courtesy of the Jet Propulsion laboratory. Click image to enlarge.