NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover, which landed in 2012, came equipped with eclipse glasses, or to be more specific, solar filters on its Mast Camera (Mastcam) that enable it to stare directly at the Sun. These past few weeks Curiosity has used these filters and transmitted some amazing imagery of solar eclipses caused by Phobos and Deimos, Mars’ two moons. Phobos, which is as wide as 16 miles across, was photographed on March 26, 2019, while Deimos, which is as wide as 10 miles across, was captured on March 17, 2019. Read more for two videos and additional information.
“In addition to capturing each moon crossing in front of the Sun, one of Curiosity’s Navigation Cameras (Navcams) observed the shadow of Phobos on March 25, 2019 (Sol 2358). As the moon’s shadow passed over the rover during sunset, it momentarily darkened the light. To date, there have been eight observations of Deimos eclipsing the Sun from either Spirit, Opportunity or Curiosity; there have been about 40 observations of Phobos. There’s still a margin of uncertainty in the orbits of both Martian moons, but that shrinks with every eclipse that’s viewed from the Red Planet’s surface,” said NASA.
