NASA shared amazing footage of a solar eclipse captured by its Perseverance rover.
The video was taken by Perseverance's Mastcam-Z camera earlier this month and shows Phobos, Mars, passing across the face of the sun.
The largest of Mars' two natural satellites is Phobos, which is 27 km long. It is about 157 times smaller than Earth's moon.
The body of water on the surface of Mars takes just 7 hours and 39 minutes to complete, compared to 27 days for the moon.
Scientists can learn more about Phobos and how its gravity affects the planet's surface by observing it. Phobos is going to crash into Mars in tens of millions of years, as it is getting closer to the planet.
Perseverance is not the first NASA rover to capture solar eclipses. Eighteen years ago, the twin NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity captured the first time-lapse photos of Phobos during a solar eclipse, while the NASA rover that continues to explore Mars today also used one of its onboard cameras to capture similar footage.
A video like this is a real treat for scientists who are working on a planetary mission.
I knew it was going to be good, but I didn't think it would be this good.
The high-resolution footage that followed really blew her away, as Howson explained that Perseverance always sends lower-resolution thumbnails that offer a preview of the images to come.
The scientist said it felt like a birthday or holiday when they arrived.
Perseverance is trying to find evidence of ancient life on the red planet while also gathering rock samples for return to Earth by a future mission.
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