Rover captures peculiar ‘googly eye’ in the Martian sky

(CNN) — The Perseverance rover spotted a quick glimpse of a cosmic “googly eye” on Mars during a recent solar eclipse.

As Phobos, one of Mars’ two moons, passed in front of the sun, it cast a lumpy, potato-shaped shadow on the sun’s face as well as on the Martian surface.

The Perseverance rover, currently ascending the western wall of Jezero Crater, captured a video of the partial eclipse, which resembled a googly eye, on September 30.

The eclipse lasted about 30 seconds, which makes the minutes-long solar eclipses seen from Earth seem epic — but the events are comparatively brief on Mars because Phobos is about 157 times smaller in diameter than Earth’s moon, according to NASA.

Perseverance’s latest observation carries on the tradition of Mars rovers that have served as the few spectators to glimpse — and record — a Martian eclipse. Previous images includes a video taken by the Curiosity rover in 2019 and photo that the Opportunity rover snapped in 2004.

With each video or photo of a Martian eclipse that a robotic explorer takes, astronomers can better understand the changing orbit of Phobos and how its days are numbered.

Doomed from the start

Phobos completes an orbit around the Martian equator every 7.6 hours, or three times a day, and is about 3,700 miles (6,000 kilometers) from the surface of the red planet.

Pockmarked by thousands of meteorites, this moon was once nearly shattered by a giant impact. While it survived the collision, Phobos remains doomed. The tiny moon is drawing closer to Mars at a rate of 6 feet (1.8 meters) every 100 years, and it will either crash into Mars in 50 million years or break up and become a ring around the planet.

Astronomer Asaph Hall discovered Mars’ two moons, Phobos and Deimos, in 1877. He named them for the Greek gods associated with fear and panic.

Astronomers suspect Phobos and Deimos may be asteroids captured in orbit by Mars’ gravity or fragments scattered during a giant impact with Mars, but mysteries persist about the Martian moons.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Martian Moons eXploration mission, or MMX, intends to solve some of those enduring riddles. The mission, expected to launch in 2026, will closely observe both moons before landing on Phobos, retrieving a sample from that moon and returning it to Earth.

Perseverance’s slippery journey

Meanwhile, the Perseverance rover continues its arduous climb up the slippery, 20-degree-sloped surface of the crater wall, which is covered in loosely packed dust and sand and a fine layer of brittle crust.

To conquer the difficult terrain, the rover’s engineering team on Earth had the robot experiment with driving backward up the incline, switchbacking and driving closer to the northern edge of “Summerland Trail,” the name given to the rover’s route up the rim.

Following the northern edge has been the most efficient method for Perseverance’s climb, likely due to the presence of large rocks close to the surface that provide more traction.

The team anticipates the rover will reach the scientifically intriguing crater rim by December.

The rover recently shared a mosaic that stitches together 44 images showcasing landmark moments from its 3 ½-year journey on the red planet, including its landing site and the final airfield of the Ingenuity helicopter.

“The image not only shows our past and present, but also shows the biggest challenge to getting where we want to be in the future,” said Rick Welch, Perseverance’s deputy project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “If you look at the right side of the mosaic, you begin to get an idea what we’re dealing with. Mars didn’t want to make it easy for anyone to get to the top of this ridge.”

Once Perseverance crests the crater rim, it will head for Witch Hazel Hill, a light-colored bedrock feature identified by the rover’s science team as a spot that might be ideal for drilling a rock sample. The team is hopeful that samples collected at points of interest along Perseverance’s journey could determine whether microbial life existed on Mars billions of years ago, when water flowed from a river delta and filled Jezero Crater.

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