NASA’s Perseverance rover was sent toward Mars two years ago and has been exploring the planet ever since, sending back breathtaking high-resolution images of the Red Planet. 

(PH๏τo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)

This Wednesday the space agency uploaded many fresh images on the Perseverance website.

The pH๏τographs sent on Wednesday contain both color and black-and-white images of the Martian horizon, a desolate scene with jagged rocks.

This year, Perseverance beat NASA’s record for the longest distance traveled on Mars in a single day by a rover. During its exploratory trip on February 15th, the ship went approximately a kilometer.

Thomas Zurbuchen, ᴀssistant administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, stated that the materials collected by Perseverance will offer a crucial timeline for the development of Jezero Crater. Each is thoroughly evaluated for its scientific merit.

“Right now, we take what we know about the age of impact craters on the Moon and extrapolate that to Mars,” added Katie Stack Morgan, Perseverance’s deputy project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Bringing back a sample from this heavily cratered surface in Jezero could provide a tie-point to calibrate the Mars crater dating system independently, instead of relying solely on the lunar one.”

Mars Perseverance Sol 492: Right Mastcam-Z Camera. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

The Perseverance is now searching Jezero Crater for indications of ancient extraterrestrial life. It is gathering rock samples for study by Earth-based experts. At the present pace, authorities do not anticipate receiving the samples until 2031.

“This landing is one of those pivotal moments for NASA, the United States, and space exploration globally – when we know we are on the cusp of discovery and sharpening our pencils, so to speak, to rewrite the textbooks,” then-NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk said of Perseverance’s landing on Mars last year. 

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

“The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission embodies our nation’s spirit of persevering even in the most challenging of situations, inspiring, and advancing science and exploration. The mission itself personifies the human ideal of persevering toward the future and will help us prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet in the 2030s.”

Reference(s): NASA Website