Washington (AFP)
NASA on Wednesday released a spectacular panoramic photo of Mars taken by Perseverance over the area where the rover landed last week.
The photo, reconstructed from several snapshots taken by the vehicle, shows the ridge of Jezero crater, which scientists say contained a deep lake into which a river flowed about 3.5 billion years ago.
The rover took 142 360-degree shots with the high-definition cameras installed on its mast.
"We are installed on a very good site, from where we can see characteristics very similar to those found by Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity (three rovers having preceded Perseverance on the red planet) on their landing zone", s' said Jim Bell of the University of Arizona.
The American space agency has the explicit goal of finding traces of ancient life on the red planet, by collecting for at least two years up to thirty rock samples.
Perseverance cameras will help scientists determine the geological history and atmospheric conditions of the crater, and identify the rocks and sediments that will be removed before being transported to Earth on a future mission, scheduled for the 2030s.
NASA had already released Monday two exceptional documents captured by its rover, a spectacular video of its landing recorded from all angles, and the sound of a gust of Martian wind, the first audio recorded on the red planet by a microphone.
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