Transit of Deimos from Mars

A passage of the Martian moon Deimos from the sun seen from Mars takes place when Deimos passes directly between the Sun and a point on the surface of Mars from the sun. During a transit Deimos can be seen as a small black disk from Mars that moves quickly across the solar disk.

The case could be described as a partial eclipse of the sun from Deimos. However, since the angular diameter of Deimos makes up only about 1/10 of the angular diameter of the sun (as seen from Mars ), it is more appropriate to refer to the phenomenon as a passage. The angular diameter of Deimos represents only 2 1/2-mal the angular diameter of Venus from Earth during a passage of Venus from Earth. A passage of Deimos from Mars usually takes only a minute or two, this. Because of its relatively rapid orbital period of approximately 30.3 hours

Because Deimos orbits Mars in the equatorial plane with a low orbital inclination, the shadow of Deimos touched in the course of a Martian year, the Martian surface in different widths. For any given current position on the Martian surface, there are two time points in the Martian year in which the shadow of Deimos moves over them. During this period the observer can see at most a Deimostransit. The shadow always falls on the " winter hemisphere ", except it crosses the equator during the equinox. This happened transits of Deimos of Mars during autumn and winter in the northern hemisphere and in the southern hemisphere, approximately symmetrical around the winter solstice. Nah happen at the equator it to the autumnal equinox and the vernal equinox; further away from the equator they happen around the winter solstice. Because Deimos relatively close orbits Mars, Deimos can be seen from 82.7 ° S, 82.7 ° N, not north of or south; in the near polar latitudes there is consequently no Deimosdurchgänge from Mars.