NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars has captured an intriguing photo featuring an unexpected guest: a Martian dust devil.
Appearing as a faint, spinning column, the dust devil was spotted about 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the rover during a recent photo session. This newly released selfie is a composite crafted from 59 individual shots taken by the camera attached to the rover’s robotic arm, as detailed by NASA.
The process required an hour of meticulous arm maneuvering to collect all the necessary images. “But the effort pays off,” remarked Megan Wu, an imaging scientist at Malin Space Science Systems, where the camera was developed.
“Having the dust devil in the background makes it a classic,” Wu said in a statement.
The picture — which also shows the rover’s latest sample borehole on the surface — marks 1,500 sols or Martian days for Perseverance. That’s equivalent to 1,541 days on Earth.
Perseverance is covered with red dust, the result of drilling into dozens of rocks. Launched in 2020, it’s collecting samples for eventual return to Earth from Jezero Crater, an ancient lakebed and river delta that could hold clues of any past microbial life.
