Earth Vanishes Behind Mars’ Moon Phobos, Captured by Perseverance in a First-Ever Record

August 5, 2026. United States.

NASA’s Perseverance rover captured nine consecutive images with its Mastcam-Z camera on July 2 (Sol 1907 of the mission, around 7 p.m. Mars local time) showing Earth slowly disappearing behind Phobos, one of Mars’ moons. In the images, Earth appears as a small point of light gradually moving behind the shadowed edge of Phobos until it vanishes.

This marks the first time humans have recorded such an occultation — Earth disappearing behind another object — from the surface of another planet. Phobos is a small moon, only about 27 kilometers across at its widest, orbiting extremely close to Mars at a distance of roughly 7,800 kilometers. At the time, Earth was about 314 million kilometers away, shrinking to a single-pixel point of light in the images.

Justin Maki, the scientist in charge of Perseverance’s Mastcam-Z camera, said the image is an unusual “selfie” of Earth taken from the surface of another planet, and that Phobos seemed to suddenly photobomb the shot. He noted that while Phobos crosses the Martian sky three times a day, capturing the precise moment it passes directly in front of Earth required both careful planning and good luck.

(Sources — NASA JPL, ScienceDaily, BBC Sky at Night Magazine)