RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Add as preferred source This composite of seven images from the Mastcam-Z instrument aboard NASA's Perseverance Mars rover shows Earth, visible as a small bright dot moving from upper left to lower right, passing behind the Martian moon Phobos on July 2, 2026, the 1,907th Martian day, or sol, of the mission.
The black background is the result of image processing that removed extraneous light to enhance detail.
Figure A is an annotated composite of nine images taken by the Mastcam-Z instrument aboard Perseverance on July 2, 2026. The inset at the upper right, comprising five images, shows Earth—the small bright dot moving from upper left to lower right—passing behind the Martian moon Phobos.
The rectangle outlined at left in the annotation indicates the patch of sky that was imaged several times to capture Earth passing behind Phobos. In the larger rectangular inset, the images captured from that patch of sky are displayed in time order from left to right, with Phobos moving up and Earth moving down.
The gray of the Martian sky is the approximate true color of the twilight (about 40 minutes after sunset) on that sol. It is blue-gray lower, where it is brighter, and reddish-gray above.
Figure B includes annotations showing the local solar time on Mars when the five individual images that captured the occultation were taken.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which Caltech manages, built the Perseverance rover and manages its operations on behalf of the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington as part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program portfolio. Arizona State University leads operations of the rover's Mastcam-Z instrument, working in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego on the design, fabrication, testing and operation of the cameras.
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