NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover captured Earth passing behind Phobos, one of Mars’ two moons, on July 2, 2026 — the 1,907th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. This composite combines seven images from the rover’s Mastcam-Z camera and shows Earth as a small, bright dot moving from the upper left to the lower right.
The event, known as an occultation, occurred when Phobos temporarily passed in front of Earth from Perseverance’s perspective on the Martian surface. The black background in the image was created through image processing to remove excess light and reveal the details of the observation.
Figure A is an annotated composite made from nine images captured by Perseverance’s Mastcam-Z instrument on July 2, 2026. The upper-right inset contains five images showing Earth — the small bright dot moving from the upper left to the lower right — passing behind the Martian moon Phobos.
The rectangle on the left side of the annotation marks the section of sky photographed repeatedly as Earth moved behind Phobos. In the larger rectangular inset, the images are arranged chronologically from left to right. Phobos appears to move upward while Earth moves downward across the Martian sky.
The gray background represents the approximate natural color of the Martian twilight, recorded about 40 minutes after sunset on that sol. The sky appears blue-gray in the brighter lower portion and reddish gray at higher elevations.
Figure B includes annotations showing the local solar time on Mars when the five images documenting the Earth-Phobos occultation were taken.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, managed by Caltech, built and oversees operations of the Perseverance rover for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The rover is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program. Arizona State University leads operations for the Mastcam-Z instrument in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, which contributed to the cameras’ design, fabrication, testing, and operation.
Learn more about NASA’s Perseverance rover and the Mars 2020 mission:
science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-2020-perseverance/
Source: science.nasa.gov