[meteorite-list] NASA Mars Rover Views Eclipse of the Sun by Phobos

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2013 07:58:49 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201308291458.r7TEwnpP028906_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-263

NASA Mars Rover Views Eclipse of the Sun by Phobos
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
August 28, 2013

PASADENA, Calif. - Images taken with a telephoto-lens camera on NASA's
Mars rover Curiosity catch the larger of Mars' two moons, Phobos,
passing directly in front of the sun -- the sharpest images of a solar
eclipse ever taken at Mars.

Phobos does not fully cover the sun, as seen from the surface of Mars,
so the solar eclipse is what's called a ring, or annular, type. A set of
three frames from Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam), taken three seconds
apart as Phobos eclipsed the sun, is at
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA17356 .

The images are the first full-resolution frames downlinked to Earth from
an Aug. 17, 2013, series. The series may later provide a movie of the
eclipse. Curiosity paused during its drive that day to record the
sky-watching images.

"This event occurred near noon at Curiosity's location, which put Phobos
at its closest point to the rover, appearing larger against the sun than
it would at other times of day," said Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M
University, College Station, a co-investigator for use of Curiosity's
Mastcam. "This is the closest to a total eclipse of the sun that you can
have from Mars."

Observations of the Martian moons, Phobos and Deimos, by Curiosity and
by the older, still-active Mars rover Opportunity are helping
researchers get more precise knowledge of the moons' orbits. During the
Aug. 17 observation, the position of Phobos crossing the sun was a mile
or two (two or three kilometers) closer to the center of the sun's
position than researchers anticipated.

Lemmon said, "This one is by far the most detailed image of any Martian
lunar transit ever taken, and it is especially useful because it is
annular. It was even closer to the sun's center than predicted, so we
learned something."

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute
of Technology, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's
Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the
project's Curiosity rover.

Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, built and operates the Mastcam
instrument and two other instruments on Curiosity.

More information about Curiosity is online at
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msl , http://www.nasa.gov/msl and
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ . You can follow the mission on Facebook
at http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and on Twitter at
http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov

2013-263
Received on Thu 29 Aug 2013 10:58:49 AM PDT