Overview
- NASA, which released the 61-image selfie on Tuesday, said it was taken March 11 during the rover’s deepest push west beyond Jezero Crater’s rim at a site the team calls Lac de Charmes.
- An enhanced-color Mastcam-Z panorama from April 5 stitches 46 frames of the nearby Arbot area and highlights likely megabreccia from an ancient impact and a feature scientists say may be a volcanic dike.
- After grinding into a rock nicknamed Arethusa with its abrasion tool, the team found igneous minerals that likely formed before Jezero Crater existed, pointing to rocks sourced from Mars’ deep crust.
- Perseverance remains in its Northern Rim Campaign with 62 rock abrasions, 27 cores collected (25 sealed), and nearly 26 miles driven, and the team plans moves to Gardevarri and then Singing Canyon to probe more olivine-rich and ancient crustal rocks.
- The selfie used the WATSON arm camera and 62 precise arm moves in about an hour, a technique that documents context for samples and helps target studies that could test ideas such as an early magma ocean on Mars.