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Photographers have captured many awe-inspiring photos of solar eclipses in recent years. But Earth is not the only planet pictures are being shot from: NASA's Curiosity rover has captured some beautiful solar eclipse from the surface of Mars.
NASA writes that the special eclipse "glasses" used by Curiosity are the solar filters found on the rover's Camera Mast (AKA the Mastcam). These filters allow it to shoot directly to the Sun.
On March 17th, Curiosity captured the Martian moon Deimos (the smaller and further Martian moons) crossing the Sun. Deimos measures just 1.5 miles across. Here's the photo sequence turned into a time-lapse (sped up by a factor of 10):
"Deimos is small enough that scientists consider it a transit rather than an eclipse," NASA states. "The Deimos transit lasted several minutes."
When the Phobos (7 miles across) crossed the Sun on March 25th, Curiosity captured this sequence of photos showing the moon's shadow and the darkness of the sky. This has been spiced up by a factor of 4:
"The image was taken after the Sun had descended behind the horizon, just as Phobos was rising and throwing its elongated shadow across the Martian surface," NASA writes. "Dust particles in the atmosphere is a screen against which the shadow has been projected."
The next day, Curiosity captured a sequence of photos showing Phobos crossing in front of the Sun with the Mastcam (this is still up by a factor of 10):
"Solar eclipses have been seen many times by Curiosity and other rovers in the past," NASA says. "Besides being cool – who does not love an eclipse? – these events also serve a scientific purpose, helping researchers understand their understanding of each moon's orbit around Mars. "
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