Phobos is too small to completely cover the sun, so Martians never get to see total solar eclipses like the one visible from the South Pacific this summer. Instead, astronomers call Phobos’s journeys across the face of the sun transits or partial eclipses.

Images of these transits taken many years apart can help scientists track changes in the moons’ orbits, which in turn gives information about Mars’s interior.

But for some Mars explorers, like Panoramic camera principal investigator Jim Bell, the spectacle of seeing events on Mars as if we were there is just as exciting as the science the images reveal.

“It reminds me of a favorite quote from French author Marcel Proust,” Bell said in a press release. “‘The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.’”

Video: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/Texas A&M

See Also:

• Opportunity Rover Finds Fresh Crater on Mars
• Sleeping Mars Rover Finds Evidence of Liquid Water
• Watch NASA Build the Next Mars Rover
• Reader Photos: Lunar Eclipse Solstice Special

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Authors: Lisa Grossman

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