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What's that passing in front of the Sun? It looks like a moon, but it can't be Earth's Moon, because it isn't round. It's the Martian moon Phobos. The featured video was taken from the surface of Mars in 2022 by the Perseverance rover. Phobos, at 11.5 kilometers across, is 150 times smaller than Luna (our moon) in diameter, but also 50 times closer to its parent planet. In fact, Phobos is so close to Mars that it is expected to break up and crash into Mars within the next 50 million years. In the near term, the low orbit of Phobos results in more rapid solar eclipses than seen from Earth. The featured video is shown in real time -- the transit really took about 40 seconds, as shown. The videographer -- the robotic rover Perseverance (Percy) -- continues to explore Jezero Crater on Mars, searching not only for clues to the watery history of the now dry world, but evidence of ancient microbial life.

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[-] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 1 points 7 hours ago

Look at this garbage Eclipse. We're so lucky our Moon isn't trash

[-] chunkystyles@sopuli.xyz 1 points 7 hours ago

All I can hear is the Quake 3 announcer saying "PHOBOS".

[-] Nima@leminal.space 9 points 20 hours ago

I'm not lying I've come back to this post 3 times today just cause it's so cool.

[-] certified_expert@lemmy.world 2 points 15 hours ago

I wanna bully Phobos... so not round

[-] Klear@piefed.world 10 points 1 day ago

What do you call a fear of Phobos blocking the sun forever?

[-] Rokin@leminal.space 11 points 22 hours ago

Phobophobia?

[-] Chakravanti@monero.town 1 points 21 hours ago

Dominole Sucker?

this post was submitted on 24 May 2026
88 points (97.8% liked)

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