Rare Martian eclipse looks like a googly eye

By Dean Murray via SWNS

A rare Martian eclipse has caused amusement - as it looked like a googly eye.

The potato-shaped Mars moon of Phobos was spied crossing in front of the Sun by NASA's Perseverance rover last week.

The rover was able to snap 68 images of the 8 February transit from its vantage point in the Jezero Crater.

The pictures were captured using the rover's left Mastcam-Z camera, usually used to take panoramic views of the Martian landscape.

Scientists will be able to use the data captured to study doomed Phobos, named after the ancient Greek god of fear.

Phobos is on a collision course with Mars, nearing the Red Planet at a rate of six feet (1.8 metres) every hundred years.

At that rate, the moon will either crash into Mars in 50 million years or break up into a ring.

NASA says: "Each time these eclipses are observed, they allow scientists to measure subtle shifts in Phobos’ orbit over time."

Popular Science commented: "The result arguably resembles more googly eye than awe-inspiring cosmic calendar occurrence."