NASA's Perseverance Rover captures selfie with dust devil on Mars
The picture marks 1,500 sols (Martian days) for Perseverance, equivalent to 1,541 days on Earth.
A latest selfie by NASA’s Perseverance rover at Mars has featured a new guest: a Martin dust devil. In the picture, Martin dust devil can be seen as a small pale puff of the twirling dust popped up about 5 kilometres behind the rover. The photo shoot that was done this month marked 1,500 sols (Martian days) for Perseverance, equivalent to 1,541 days on Earth. This selfie is a composite of 59 images taken by the camera fixed on the end of the rover’s robotic arm.
It also features the rover’s latest sample borehole on the surface. The picture was taken when the rover was parked in an area nicknamed “Witch Hazel Hill,” near Jezero Crater, which Perseverance has been exploring for the past five months.
Megan Wu, an imaging scientist from Malin Space Science System, which built the camera, told the Associated Press that it took almost an hour to perform the necessary arm movements to gather the images but “it’s worth it.” Having a dust devil in the background of the photo makes it iconic, Wu added.
Perseverance can be seen covered with red dust, as a result of drilling into dozens of rocks. According to the NASA website, Justin Maki, Perseverance imaging lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory explained the importance of the photo taken by the rover. He says the self portrait “gives a great view of the terrain and the rover hardware.”
How perseverance took selfie
This new selfie taken by Perseverance is the fifth photo taken since the mission began. It was assembled from the series of images collected by WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and Engineering) camera. To make this selfie possible, WATSON took three additional images concentrating on the mast of the rover.
Launched in 2020, Perseverance is collecting samples from Jezero Crater, an ancient lakebed and river delta that could hold clues of any past microbial life.
