NASA’s Perseverance Rover Stares At An Amazing ‘Googly Eye’ Martian Eclipse

As scientists and others look at how to make Mars habitable for life in the future, NASA’s Perseverance rover remains busy exploring the Martian surface. The rover recently spotted a striped rock unlike any other on the Red Planet before, which the space agency stated possessed qualities that may be indicators of ancient life. But it is a solar eclipse that produced a “Googly Eye” that everyone is looking at right now.

The partial solar eclipse, captured by Perseverance’s Mastcam-Z, occurred on September 30. Perseverance, while on the western wall of the planet’s Jezero Crater, caught the quick glimpse as Mars’ moon Phobos passed in front of the Sun. As Phobos moved in front of the Sun, the potato shaped moon’s silhouette produced what looks like a cartoonish googly eye, if only for a moment, as the eclipse lasted about 30 seconds.

Phobos is the larger of the two moons, measuring 17 x 14 x 11 miles in diameter, or roughly 157 times smaller in diameter than Earth’s moon. Mars’ moon orbits the planet three times a day, and is so close to the Red Planet’s surface that in some locations on Mars it cannot always be seen.

According to NASA, astronomer Asaph Hall named Phobos in 1877, after the god of fear and panic in Greek mythology. In fact, the word “phobia” comes from the same name, Phobos. Hall also named Mars’ other moon, Deimos, after Phobos’ mythological twin brother.

NASA remarked this is not the first time Perseverance has caught Phobos moving in front of the Sun, capturing another video of the event in 2019. The space agency’s other rover, Opportunity, captured an image of the event in 2004.

By comparing the various images and videos of the solar eclipse, NASA remarked, “scientists can refine their understanding of the moon’s orbit to learn how it’s changing.” It added, “Phobos is getting closer to Mars and is predicted to collide with it in about 50 million years.”