Perseverance rover watches Earth vanish behind Martian moon

• The Perseverance rover captured an image of Earth disappearing behind the Martian moon Phobos. The event was recorded on July 2, 2026, and is the first time humanity has observed Earth occulted by a Martian moon from the surface of another planet. The images were taken by the Mastcam-Z instrument and show Earth moving from the upper left to the lower right while Phobos moves from the lower left to the upper right. The composite image shows Earth winking out behind Phobos' shadowed edge.
• The observation was made on the 1,907th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The images were captured at local solar time, and the timecode annotations show five individual images of the occultation. Phobos, which is about 17 miles wide, orbits Mars at a distance of 4,850 miles, making it roughly one-third the width of Earth's moon as seen from Earth.
• This event is an occultation, where a larger object blocks the view of the smaller one. The observation highlights the unique perspective from Mars, where Earth appears as a tiny dot and Phobos as a larger, lumpy moon. The data provides insight into the Martian sky and the behavior of celestial bodies from another planet.

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