What an eclipse looks like from mars

As we earthlings eagerly anticipate the rare total solar eclipse gracing North America, earlier this year, Mars treated us to its own celestial spectacle. Captured in a mesmerizing timelapse by NASA's Perseverance rover on February 8th, the Red Planet witnessed its diminutive moon Phobos gracefully traversing the expansive face of the sun. Preceding this event, Mars' other moon, Deimos, had its own moment of transit just a month prior.

In the midst of preparations for today's total solar eclipse casting an unusual shadow over a significant portion of the U.S., NASA shared these captivating timelapses, offering a glimpse into the cosmic marvels beyond our own atmosphere. While millions of Americans gear up to witness the grandeur of today's eclipse, it's worth contemplating what such a phenomenon would look like from the perspective of another planet in our solar system.

Perched within Mars' Jezero Crater, the Perseverance rover, a notable presence since its touchdown in 2021, diligently documented the celestial ballet on February 8th, as Phobos, with its peculiar shape, glided gracefully across the radiant backdrop of the sun. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory later released a collection of 68 images showcasing the solar eclipse, captured by the rover's left Mastcam-Z camera, renowned for its panoramic vistas of the Martian landscape. On this particular occasion, however, the camera's gaze was directed skyward, tracing the passage of the asteroid-sized Phobos overhead.

While eclipses are a familiar phenomenon on Earth and any planet with a moon, the scale and circumstances vary greatly. For planets like Mars, whose moons are comparatively diminutive, the spectacle of a total solar eclipse akin to the one we anticipate today may be a rarity, owing to the moons' size or distance from the planet's surface.

Heres the link to where I got the information from to construct this blog as always