NASA's Perseverance rover captures Earth vanishing behind Phobos from Mars
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NASA's Perseverance rover has recorded the first images from another planet of Earth passing behind Mars' moon Phobos, the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said Aug. 13. The Mastcam-Z sequence, taken July 2 from Jezero Crater, shows Earth as a single-pixel point about 195 million miles away before Phobos crosses in front.
The Observation
Perseverance recorded the sequence with its Mastcam-Z instrument at about 7 p.m. local Mars time on July 2, the 1,907th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. In the composite, Earth moves diagonally from upper left to lower right while Phobos crosses from lower left to upper right. By the third frame, the two bodies align and Earth briefly disappears behind the moon's shadowed edge. Justin Maki, Mastcam-Z deputy principal investigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, called the result a unique Earth self-portrait with a Phobos photobomb.
Scale and Distance
From the rover's position along the rim of Jezero Crater, Earth was about 195 million miles (314 million kilometers) away and appeared as a single-pixel point of light. Phobos is about 17 miles (27 kilometers) across at its widest and orbits 4,850 miles (7,800 kilometers) from Mars, making it appear about one-third as wide as Earth's Moon from the rover. Mark Lemmon, a Mastcam-Z co-investigator at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, planned the observation and assembled the composite. He noted Phobos crosses the Martian sky three times a day while Earth remains visible for months.
Occultation Context
Astronomers classify the event as an occultation, when one body passes directly in front of another. NASA's Perseverance mission, managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, has observed Phobos transits and eclipses from the surface since landing in Jezero Crater in 2021. The new sequence is the first showing Earth disappearing behind another object from the surface of a different planet.
What's Next
The next Earth-Phobos occultation from Jezero Crater has not been scheduled. Whether Mastcam-Z will repeat the observation remains unclear as mission planners balance other imaging priorities.
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NASA's Perseverance rover captures Earth vanishing behind Phobos from Mars
