Mastcam-Z captures the silhouette of Deimos, one of the two Martian moons, as it passed in front of the Sun on January 19, 2024 (Sol 1037)
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS/SSI/PIA26249
Mastcam-Z captures the silhouette of Deimos, one of the two Martian moons, as it passed in front of the Sun on January 19, 2024 (Sol 1037)
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS/SSI/PIA26249
Wait, so there were eclipses from both Phobos and Deimos within a few weeks of each other? Is this a rare occurrence, or does it happen often?
Yup just a few weeks apart. There are several transits each year. Phobos orbits Mars 3 times every day, so if you happen to be in the right place and time, a transit can be spotted. Deimos is slower and only orbits every 30 hours or so.
There was a transit of Mercury viewed by Perseverance late last year (October 28, 2023), but the MastCam-Z camera barely picked it up as Mercury is tiny. Here’s an animation of that transit https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/archive/PIA26250.gif