On July 2, 2026, NASA's Perseverance rover on Mars used its Mastcam-Z to capture a rare astronomical event: Earth passing behind Phobos, Mars's larger moon. This sequence from Jezero Crater shows Earth as a bright point of light disappearing briefly as Phobos crosses its path, a unique visual from 4,850 miles away from the Martian surface. The event provided an unprecedented 'self-portrait' of Earth from another planet, combining engineering precision with celestial mechanics to capture this phenomenon.
Phobos, a small irregular moon approximately 17 miles across, orbits close to Mars, appearing comparatively large in the Martian sky. The images highlight differences in size and distance between Earth and Phobos as seen from Mars. While this observation was conducted with Perseverance's imaging instruments, the details are based on NASA's publishing without independent verification of the image analysis.
Source & further reading
NASA’s Perseverance Rover Watches Earth Vanish Behind Martian Moon ↗Source published 2026-08-05. This report was prepared with AI assistance from the linked primary-source material. Claims and limitations should be checked against the original announcement or research.