NASA witnesses solar eclipse on Mars

Solar eclipse even on Earth is a relatively rare phenomenon. Not everyone of us can boast of having witnessed the wonder from Earth. So forget about witnessing solar eclipse from another planet.

But NASA has come to our rescue. Its Perseverance rover has captured brilliant footage of solar eclipse from the surface of Mars. Mars' moon Phobos came between The Sun and Mars to cause a martian solar eclipse.

Phobos, Mars' satellite has an oblong shape. When this particular eclipse took place, Phobos partially covered the Sun. The footage was captured by the Perseverance rover which is still moving on the surface of the red planet. NASA has posted this footage.

In addition to being a visual treat, this footage may help scientists to study and better understand Phobos' orbit around Mars.

This eclipse took place on April 2. It was 397th Martian day or sol. Perseverance captured this eclipse with its next-generation Mastcam-Z camera.

The eclipse itself lasted only a little over 40 seconds. This may sound nothing but it needs to be borne in mind that Phobos, the Martian satellite is 157 times smaller than Earth's moon. Deimos, Mars' other satellite, is even smaller.

Yet another feather in Perseveraance's cap!