| Posted NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has turned its cameras skyward to snap pictures of one of the planet's moons, Phobos, passing in front of the sun in what is known as an annular eclipse. Curiosity landed on Mars in August 2012 for a two-year mission to determine if the planet most like Earth in the solar system has, or ever had, the chemical ingredients for life. It paused on August 17 to snap pictures of Mars's larger moon, Phobos, making a dash in front of the sun. NASA released three pictures, taken three seconds apart, of the eclipse, taken with the rover's telephoto lens. "This one is by far the most detailed image of any Martian lunar transit ever taken," Curiosity scientist Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University said in a statement. "It was even closer to the sun's centre than predicted, so we learned something." Curiosity is now en route to its primary hunting ground, a five-kilometre high mountain of layered sediment called Mount Sharp. It is scheduled to moonlight as an astronomer again in September and October, when it tries to catch a glimpse of the approaching Comet ISON. ABC/Reuters Topics: astronomy-space, united-states  via Science - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNFHtABrSS6N5laPBZKH0SW6L1Z1jg&url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-06/curiosity-shows-moon-eclipse/4940422 | |||
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