Mars Rover Curiosity Captures Eclipse On Mars (PICTURES)

30/08/2013 08:53 | Updated 29 October 2013

Nasa's Curiosity rover has captured some stunning sights and amazing science in its 13 months on Mars. But this might be one of the very best.

The US space agency has just released this series of pictures taken three seconds apart, showing Mars' moon Phobos passing in front of the Sun.

Curiosity photographed the annular (aka 'ring') eclipse with its telephoto lens on the Mast Camera pair, on 17 August.


Phobos is the larger of Mars' two moons, and is an irregular shape with an average radius of just 11km - making it far smaller than our own Moon.

Nasa said that its camera teams had to prepare carefully to capture the event.

It explained:

"Curiosity paused during its drive that sol for a set of observations that the camera team carefully calculated to record this celestial event. The rover's observations of Phobos help make researchers' knowledge of the moon's orbit even more precise.


Find out how Curiosity works in our guide below:

Curiosity: Mars Science Laboratory's Rover
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