In 2014, the Mars rover named Curiosity observed the Martian moon Phobos eclipsing most of the Sun as shown in the figure below. Look up the “average” Sun-Mars distance in units of AU and use this value throughout this problem. (a) Using the fact that the Sun subtends an angle of 0.5 degrees from the Earth, determine the angular size of the Sun from Mars. (i.e., use ratios of Earth and Mars properties, instead of just looking up the actual size of the Sun) (b) Find the dimensions of Phobos  and its average distance from Mars. Use this to check your answer about the Sun’s angular size, by roughly determining the angular size of the Phobos and seeing that this is somewhat consistent with the eclipse picture below. Ignore details of less than a factor of 2.    This is an ungraded review problem on angular size ratios.

Applications and Investigations in Earth Science (9th Edition)
9th Edition
ISBN:9780134746241
Author:Edward J. Tarbuck, Frederick K. Lutgens, Dennis G. Tasa
Publisher:Edward J. Tarbuck, Frederick K. Lutgens, Dennis G. Tasa
Chapter1: The Study Of Minerals
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In 2014, the Mars rover named Curiosity observed the Martian moon Phobos eclipsing most of the
Sun as shown in the figure below. Look up the “average” Sun-Mars distance in units of AU and use this value throughout this problem.
(a) Using the fact that the Sun subtends an angle of 0.5 degrees from the Earth, determine the
angular size of the Sun from Mars. (i.e., use ratios of Earth and Mars properties, instead of just
looking up the actual size of the Sun)
(b) Find the dimensions of Phobos  and its average distance from Mars. Use this to check your answer about the
Sun’s angular size, by roughly determining the angular size of the Phobos and seeing that this
is somewhat consistent with the eclipse picture below. Ignore details of less than a factor of 2. 
 
This is an ungraded review problem on angular size ratios. 
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