Feed aggregator
NASA’s Perseverance Rover Captures Mars Vista As Clear As Day
‘Float rocks,’ sand ripples, and vast distances are among the sights to see in the latest high-resolution panorama by the six-wheeled scientist.
The imaging team of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover took advantage of clear skies on the Red Planet to capture one of the sharpest panoramas of its mission so far. Visible in the mosaic, which was stitched together from 96 images taken at a location the science team calls “Falbreen,” are a rock that appears to lie on top of a sand ripple, a boundary line between two geologic units, and hills as distant as 40 miles (65 kilometers) away. The enhanced-color version shows the Martian sky to be remarkably clear and deceptively blue, while in the natural-color version, it’s reddish.
“Our bold push for human space exploration will send astronauts back to the Moon,” said Sean Duffy, acting NASA administrator. “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.”
The rover’s Mastcam-Z instrument captured the images on May 26, 2025, the 1,516th Martian day, or sol, of Perseverance’s mission, which began in February 2021 on the floor of Jezero Crater. Perseverance reached the top of the crater rim late last year.
“The relatively dust-free skies provide a clear view of the surrounding terrain,” said Jim Bell, Mastcam-Z’s principal investigator at Arizona State University in Tempe. “And in this particular mosaic, we have enhanced the color contrast, which accentuates the differences in the terrain and sky.”
Buoyant BoulderOne detail that caught the science team’s attention is a large rock that appears to sit atop a dark, crescent-shaped sand ripple to the right of the mosaic’s center, about 14 feet (4.4 meters) from the rover. Geologists call this type of rock a “float rock” because it was more than likely formed someplace else and 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.
The bright white circle just left of center and near the bottom of the image is an abrasion patch. This is the 43rd rock Perseverance has abraded since it landed on Mars. Two inches (5 centimeters) wide, the shallow patch is made with the rover’s drill and enables the science team to see what’s beneath the weathered, dusty surface of a rock before deciding to drill a core sample that would be stored in one of the mission’s titanium sample tubes.
The rover made this abrasion on May 22 and performed proximity science (a detailed analysis of Martian rocks and soil) with its arm-mounted instruments two days later. The science team wanted to learn about Falbreen because it’s situated within what may be some of the oldest terrain Perseverance has ever explored — perhaps even older than Jezero Crater.
Tracks from the rover’s journey to the location can be seen toward the mosaic’s right edge. About 300 feet (90 meters) away, they veer to the left, disappearing from sight at a previous geologic stop the science team calls “Kenmore.”
A little more than halfway up the mosaic, sweeping from one edge to the other, is the transition from lighter-toned to darker-toned rocks. This is the boundary line, or contact, between two geologic units. The flat, lighter-colored rocks nearer to the rover are rich in the mineral olivine, while the darker rocks farther away are believed to be much older clay-bearing rocks.
More About PerseveranceNASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for the agency by Caltech, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover on behalf of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, as part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program portfolio. Arizona State University leads the operations of the Mastcam-Z instrument, working in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, on the design, fabrication, testing, and operation of the cameras.
For more about Perseverance:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-2020-perseverance
News Media ContactsDC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-9011
agle@jpl.nasa.gov
Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov
2025-100
Explore More 4 min read NASA Supercomputers Take on Life Near Greenland’s Most Active Glacier Article 6 hours ago 5 min read NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer Moon Mission Ends Article 2 days ago 5 min read Marking 13 Years on Mars, NASA’s Curiosity Picks Up New Skills Article 2 days ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASAMissions
Humans in Space
Climate Change
Solar System
NASA’s Perseverance Rover Captures Mars Vista As Clear As Day
‘Float rocks,’ sand ripples, and vast distances are among the sights to see in the latest high-resolution panorama by the six-wheeled scientist.
The imaging team of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover took advantage of clear skies on the Red Planet to capture one of the sharpest panoramas of its mission so far. Visible in the mosaic, which was stitched together from 96 images taken at a location the science team calls “Falbreen,” are a rock that appears to lie on top of a sand ripple, a boundary line between two geologic units, and hills as distant as 40 miles (65 kilometers) away. The enhanced-color version shows the Martian sky to be remarkably clear and deceptively blue, while in the natural-color version, it’s reddish.
“Our bold push for human space exploration will send astronauts back to the Moon,” said Sean Duffy, acting NASA administrator. “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.”
The rover’s Mastcam-Z instrument captured the images on May 26, 2025, the 1,516th Martian day, or sol, of Perseverance’s mission, which began in February 2021 on the floor of Jezero Crater. Perseverance reached the top of the crater rim late last year.
“The relatively dust-free skies provide a clear view of the surrounding terrain,” said Jim Bell, Mastcam-Z’s principal investigator at Arizona State University in Tempe. “And in this particular mosaic, we have enhanced the color contrast, which accentuates the differences in the terrain and sky.”
Buoyant BoulderOne detail that caught the science team’s attention is a large rock that appears to sit atop a dark, crescent-shaped sand ripple to the right of the mosaic’s center, about 14 feet (4.4 meters) from the rover. Geologists call this type of rock a “float rock” because it was more than likely formed someplace else and 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.
The bright white circle just left of center and near the bottom of the image is an abrasion patch. This is the 43rd rock Perseverance has abraded since it landed on Mars. Two inches (5 centimeters) wide, the shallow patch is made with the rover’s drill and enables the science team to see what’s beneath the weathered, dusty surface of a rock before deciding to drill a core sample that would be stored in one of the mission’s titanium sample tubes.
The rover made this abrasion on May 22 and performed proximity science (a detailed analysis of Martian rocks and soil) with its arm-mounted instruments two days later. The science team wanted to learn about Falbreen because it’s situated within what may be some of the oldest terrain Perseverance has ever explored — perhaps even older than Jezero Crater.
Tracks from the rover’s journey to the location can be seen toward the mosaic’s right edge. About 300 feet (90 meters) away, they veer to the left, disappearing from sight at a previous geologic stop the science team calls “Kenmore.”
A little more than halfway up the mosaic, sweeping from one edge to the other, is the transition from lighter-toned to darker-toned rocks. This is the boundary line, or contact, between two geologic units. The flat, lighter-colored rocks nearer to the rover are rich in the mineral olivine, while the darker rocks farther away are believed to be much older clay-bearing rocks.
More About PerseveranceNASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for the agency by Caltech, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover on behalf of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, as part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program portfolio. Arizona State University leads the operations of the Mastcam-Z instrument, working in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, on the design, fabrication, testing, and operation of the cameras.
For more about Perseverance:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-2020-perseverance
News Media ContactsDC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-9011
agle@jpl.nasa.gov
Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov
2025-100
Explore More 4 min read NASA Supercomputers Take on Life Near Greenland’s Most Active Glacier Article 1 hour ago 5 min read NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer Moon Mission Ends Article 2 days ago 5 min read Marking 13 Years on Mars, NASA’s Curiosity Picks Up New Skills Article 2 days ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASAMissions
Humans in Space
Climate Change
Solar System
The Global Race to Space Isn't Just About Big Countries
The United States and China aren’t the only powerful, wealthy nations in the world, and they’re certainly not the only nations active in space.
Is Earth Orbit Doomed to be a Billionaire’s Playground?
If you want to get to the moon, you need to spend an enormous amount of resources developing, creating, testing, and deploying a variety of spacecraft and technologies.
Sand Reacts Differently In Lower Gravity And Could Entrap Rovers More Easily
Simulating extraterrestrial environments on Earth has always been a challenge. Our planet has a pleasant atmosphere, reasonable temperatures, and a moderate amount of gravity, unlike the rest of the solar system. Or maybe that’s just because we think that way because we adapted to how it is here as we evolved here. In either case, the physical environment here makes it difficult for us to set up test environments that can accurately test probes going to other parts of the solar system. Many times, it involves vacuum chambers, air conditioners and heaters pumping hot and cold air into them, and soil simulant - lots and lots of soil simulant. But, according to a new paper from researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, we’ve been neglecting one important aspect of these tests, and it might be the reason Spirit eventually got permanently stuck on Mars - sand is affected by gravity too.
Could We Launch a Mission to Chase Down Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS?
It’s a tantalizing prospect. Since 2017, three interstellar objects have been spotted passing through our solar system: 1I/ʻOumuamua, 2I/Borisov… and just this month, 3I/ATLAS. Discovered on July 1st by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert Survey, 3I/ATLAS is zipping through the inner solar system in the last half of 2025. Certainly, all assets on the ground and in space will be turned towards 3I/ATLAS over the next few frenzied months, to glean what we can… but what would 3I/ATLAS look like up close? Can we even consider chasing down such a speedy visitor?
mRNA Vaccine Tech Could Transform Medicine and Cure Diseases. RFK, Jr. Just Pulled Its Funding
Speed and flexibility have made mRNA a blockbuster technology