NASA's Perseverance Rover Snaps Epic Selfie with a Dust Devil!
NASA's Mars Perseverance rover just dropped a new selfie with a Martian dust devil!
This little twirling dust devil, looking like a pale puff of air, was spotted about 3 miles behind the rover during its recent photo op. Dust devils are pretty common on Mars, so it’s not totally shocking, but still, it adds a nice touch to the pic.
The selfie, released on Wednesday, is actually a mashup of 59 images taken by the rover's camera, which is mounted on its robotic arm. It took about an hour to get all the arm movements just right to snap these shots. Megan Wu, an imaging scientist from Malin Space Science Systems, said, "It’s worth it." I mean, who wouldn’t want a dust devil photobombing their selfie?
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This particular image also shows off the rover's latest sample borehole, marking a milestone of 1,500 sols - basically Martian days - for Perseverance. That’s around 1,541 days in Earth time, which is wild!
Perseverance is looking a bit dusty itself, thanks to drilling into a bunch of rocks. Since landing on Mars in 2021, it’s been busy collecting samples from Jezero Crater, an ancient lakebed that might just hold secrets about past microbial life. Oh, and just last month, there were images of a dust devil munching on a smaller one. Mars is full of surprises!
