NASA recently released this footage from its Perseverance Mars rover and it is the highest quality video ever taken from Mars!
The footage shows Phobos, one of Mars' two moons, eclipsing the Sun.
It's pretty cool, but also... it looks like a potato.
Cue moon landing conspiracy theorists!
NASA has captured Martian eclipses before but this is the most zoomed-in, with the highest frame-rate video ever taken from Mars!
"I knew it was going to be good, but I didn't expect it to be this amazing," said Rachel Howson of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, one of the Mastcam-Z team members who operates the camera. "It feels like a birthday or holiday when they arrive. You know what's coming, but there is still an element of surprise when you get to see the final product."
But it turns out that Phobos isn't your typical planet or moon. Phobos identifies as a potato.
Typically, planets and moons are sphere shaped but not Phobos!
Phobos looks lumpy and a little awkward. Very potato-like. And who doesn't love potatoes?
The extraordinary footage was captured on April 2 and lasts 40 seconds which, according to NASA, is much shorter than typical solar eclipse involving Earth's moon.
But again, this ain't your typical moon. This is Phobos! Mars' potato moon!
Which by the way, is 157 times smaller than Earth's moon.
Now for the sad news...
I don't want you all to get too attached to Phobos the Potato Moon because, as you read this, Phobos is getting closer to Mars' surface and is destined to crash into the Martian planet.
BUT that won't be for another tens of millions of years!
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