One week after making its historical landing on Mars, the Perseverance rover beamed back images to Earth that display its new surroundings in all their glory. Nasa released the first panoramic image captured by the rover’s Mastcam-Z, which offered a 360-degree view of the Jezero Crater. Teams from the space agency stitched more than 140 individual images together to create the final picture. The high-definition scene, taken from the rover’s initial landing spot, showed the desolate grounds of an ancient dry river bed that once filled the Jezero Crater. The Mastcam-Z is an advanced camera system that has panoramic and stereoscopic imaging capabilities, with the ability to zoom at high distances. Perseverance will spend at least one Mars year – or two Earth years – exploring the region around the landing site. The advanced rover, which is fitted with seven instruments including X-ray and scanning tools, will conduct several tests on the Red Planet to seek signs of ancient life. One of its main goals is to collect samples of rock and soil for a planned return to Earth. Perseverance launched on an Atlas V-541 rocket from a site in Florida in July last year and took just over six months to make a successful landing on Mars on February 18.
