NASA’s Curiosity rover has been getting all the attention these last few days as it celebrates its 13th year on Mars, but its younger sibling, Perseverance, is also hard at work on the Martian surface.
The space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which is overseeing the Perseverance Mars mission, recently shared an astonishingly clear panorama of the rover’s surroundings, taken during a rare period when the Martian dust settles on the ground. You can see a larger version of the image on JPL’s website, and even zoom into it for a closer look.
“Mars is a dusty place — but every two years, the dust settles,” JPL said in a post on X. “The Perseverance rover’s imaging team took advantage of this moment to capture one of the sharpest panoramas of its mission so far!”
The striking panorama comprises 96 images taken from a spot JPL calls Falbreen. In the foreground we can see a white area created by Perseverance after it drilled into the rock to collect a sample, while the image also shows hills as far as 40 miles (65 kilometers) away. Also, to the far right of the photo, you can see tire tracks made by Perseverance as it made its way to Flabreen.
Also note the prominent large rock that rests on a dark, crescent-shaped sand ripple not far from Perseverance. It’s known as a “float rock” as it probably formed somewhere else before being transported to its current location. “Whether this one arrived by a landslide, water, or wind is unknown, but the science team suspects it got here before the sand ripple formed,” JPL said.
Commenting on the panorama, acting NASA chief Sean Duffy said, “Our bold push for human space exploration will send astronauts back to the moon. Stunning vistas like that of Falbreen, captured by our Perseverance rover, are just a glimpse of what we’ll soon witness with our own eyes. NASA’s groundbreaking missions, starting with Artemis, will propel our unstoppable journey to take human space exploration to the Martian surface. NASA is continuing to get bolder and stronger.”
