"NASA's Perseverance Rover Captures Martian Solar Eclipse in Stunning Footage"

NASA's Perseverance rover captured footage of the Mars moon Phobos passing in front of the sun, providing a rare glimpse of a solar eclipse on the Red Planet. The footage, taken on Feb. 8, 2024, shows the potato-shaped moon in front of the sun from the rover's location in Jezero Crater. Phobos, along with the other Mars moon Deimos, has an enigmatic formation history, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency plans to send a mission to Phobos in 2026 to collect dust samples for return to Earth. Additionally, NASA and the European Space Agency are planning a Mars Sample Return mission to pick up samples collected by Perseverance in the 2030s, although budgetary issues have led to layoffs at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.