Apparent retrograde motion notable on Mars which has two natural satellites, Phobos and Deimos. Both moons orbit Mars in an eastward (prograde) direction, however Deimos has an orbital period of 1.23 Martian sidereal days, making it supersynchronous, whereas Phobos has an orbital period of 0.31 Martian sidereal days making it subsynchronous. Consequently, although both moons are travelling in an eastward (prograde) direction, they appear to be travelling in opposite directions when viewed from the surface of Mars due to their orbital periods in relation to the rotational period of the planet. All other planetary bodies in the Solar System also appear to periodically
Transit of Phobos from Mars 57.75 seconds to get a time of 20:49:02.4 UTC for the center of the shadow. Putting in the longitude/latitude/altitude coordinate values -124,14,0 into JPL Horizons gives an expected time of 20:49 for the transit, which is in good agreement once again. On 1 September 1999 the distance between the Earth and Mars was 9.9 light-minutes. Transit of Phobos from Mars A transit of Phobos across the Sun as seen from Mars takes place when Phobos passes directly between the Sun and a point on the surface of Mars, obscuring a large part of the Sun's disc for an observer on