In a remarkable display of celestial beauty, NASA's Perseverance rover on Mars captured a breathtaking sequence of images showcasing an annular eclipse of the sun by its moon, Phobos. From the vantage point of Mars' Jezero Crater, the rover's SkyCam and MastCam snapped over 65 images of the event on February 8, ensuring that not a moment was missed. The resulting footage, captured by the Left Mastcam-Z camera on the rover's mast, shows the peculiar potato-shaped moon slowly obliterating the luminous disc of the sun over a span of just 35 seconds.
This mesmerizing event took place less than two months before a total solar eclipse on Earth, which will be visible across North America. While the entire continent will witness the partial phases, only those within a narrow path of totality, spanning 115 miles wide, will have the privilege of experiencing the wondrous phenomena of totality—a brief period of darkness during daylight hours and an unobstructed view of the sun's radiant corona.
