This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: What's so special about spotting Phobos crossing in front of the sun? It's just another image of Phobos crossing the disk of the sun, as seen from the surface of Mars.
Like so much of the modern space era, these images, once amazing, are now almost routine. But there's some real science behind tasking the Mars rovers to conduct a little "Martian astronomy." Opportunity was the first rover to directly spy a Mars moon transiting the sun in 2004. Viking 1 also caught the shadow of Phobos skimming its Chryse Planitia landing site in 1977.
Both Curiosity and Perseverance have since made the effort to "look up" and monitor the celestial scene on occasion. The latest image was captured by Percy's main Mastcam-Z camera on Mars sol 1948 earlier this month, Aug. 12, 2026. Do you say eclipse, occultation or transit?
Certainly, Phobos' irregular, potato-shaped silhouette lends itself to a misshapen annular eclipse of the sun. Orbiting Mars at just under 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles) above the planet's surface, speedy Phobos takes just 7 hours and 39 minutes to orbit the Red Planet, faster than the planet rotates. It covers just a quarter of the apparent disk of the sun at its maximum, and you would see it moving in real time, taking under a minute to cross the sun's disk.
I know what you're thinking: Is it safe for Percy to stare at the sun? "Mastcam-Z used solar filters, much like eclipse glasses, to take the images," Mark Lemmon (Space Science Institute) told Universe Today. "The filter change was done before aiming at the sun; the other order would not have resulted in damage, but that is a simple precaution.
None of the instruments on the remote sensing mast can be damaged by the sun when they are aimed that way and not in use." The rovers witness other strange sights, including dusty blue sunsets and transits of the lesser of the two Martian moons, Deimos. The rovers have even been tasked with trying to spot interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS on its close 29 million-kilometer (18 million-mile) pass near Mars on Oct. 3, 2025, and the close 140,000-kilometer (87,000-mile) pass of Comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring past Mars on Oct. 19, 2014. And just recently, Perseverance caught a bizarre occultation of Earth by Phobos.
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