Perseverance captures Earth disappearing behind the Martian moon Phobos

NASA’s Perseverance rover has recorded a rare view from Mars: Earth briefly disappearing behind Phobos, the larger of the planet’s two moons.

The observation was made on July 2 using the rover’s Mastcam-Z cameras and described by NASA in August. The alignment is an occultation, in which a nearer object blocks a more distant one from the observer’s viewpoint.

From the Martian surface, even Earth becomes a small object in the sky. The sequence provides an unusual perspective on the geometry of the solar system and demonstrates how a rover built to examine rocks and landscapes can also make carefully planned astronomical observations.