Wow, what a view.
NASA’s Perseverance rover, which landed on the surface of Mars final Thursday (Feb. 18), simply beamed down its first panoramic picture of the Martian floor, the agency reported today (Feb. 22).
The car-sized rover snapped the panorama on Feb. 20, 2021, simply two days after touchdown in Jezero Crater, an historical lake on the Pink Planet’s floor, utilizing its onboard Navigation Cameras (or Navcams). The panorama was created right here on Earth with six particular person photographs taken by the interplanetary robotic’s cameras.
Perseverance, or “Percy,” as some name the craft, landed final Thursday afternoon; mission management at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California acquired the sign at 3:55 p.m. EST (2055 GMT) confirming that the rover had efficiently touched down on the Martian floor as a part of the company’s Mars 2020 mission. (The affirmation arrived about 11 minutes after Perseverance actually landed as a result of that is how lengthy it took the radio sign to journey from Mars to Earth.)
Perseverance rover’s Mars touchdown: Everything you need to know
Associated: NASA’s Mars 2020 rover mission in pictures
At this time, the company launched the primary video from the rover, taken each by cameras on the rover itself and by cameras on the Skycrane and parachute techniques which helped to get the craft safely to the planet’s floor.
Along with the gorgeous video, NASA additionally launched a “firehose of knowledge,” Justin Maki, a Perseverance imaging scientist and instrument operations group chief, mentioned at this time throughout a information convention. Amongst that knowledge is a slew of unbelievable photographs from the rover’s first days on Mars, together with this panorama.
Perseverance will proceed to take photographs and movies on Mars, and the rover may also report, for the primary time ever, audio utilizing a microphone on the floor of Mars. The rover, which is slated to final not less than two years on the Pink Planet (although earlier rovers have far outlived their anticipated finish dates), is taking detailed and plentiful photographs for numerous causes.
With detailed photographs of the Martian floor, scientists again on Earth can discover what forms of rocks and materials are literally in Jezero Crater. They’ll additionally use these photographs to assist one of many mission’s major science aims: to seek out proof of ancient life on Mars.
Scientists suppose Jezero Crater was as soon as an enormous lake and delta system, roughly 3.5 billion years in the past. Due to this, and since life as we all know it on Earth is dependent upon the presence of issues like water, they estimate that if life did exist on Mars at the moment it doubtless lived on this historical crater. Which means that, within the panorama picture taken by Perseverance, you’re looking at an historical lake mattress the place Martian life might as soon as have thrived.
E-mail Chelsea Gohd at cgohd@house.com or comply with her on Twitter @chelsea_gohd. Comply with us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Fb.
