Go to Mars (virtually) with this magnificent, very detailed panorama of its surface. The images – more than 1,000 – which make up this fresco were taken by the rover Perseverance, in the delta of an ancient river where it is investigating its geological past and its habitability.
NASA invites you to take a walk on Mars, as if you were there, by immersing yourself in the latest panorama captured in very high resolution (2.5 billion pixels!) by the Perseverance rover, it is the “most detailed panorama ever returned from the surface of Mars”. The result is an impressive and meticulous assembly of 1,118 images taken individually by the rover, and in which you can zoom in, zoom in once more, and zoom out at will to enjoy the whole landscape in its entirety with its cliffs, its mountains horizon, or literally crunchy details like these mille-feuilles of sedimentary rocks, or even this small, almost spherical pebble as if balanced on a rock. Details galore and which will intrigue all the curious for the diversity of shapes and characteristics.
This is Mars, an arid and cold world, where water flowed billions of years ago. You will not see the time pass by walking around.
Very high resolution panorama of the landscape surrounding Perseverance. © NASA, JPL-Caltech, ASU, MSSS
Perseverance in the dry delta of a river
The panorama was captured during several Martian days (Sol 466 to 471 and Sol 474, which corresponds to Earth days between June 12 and 17, then June 20). We are in the jezero crater deltaseveral hundred meters from the site where Perseverance landed 18 months ago. Scientists believe that water flowed here when conditions were warmer and wetter on the surface of Mars more than 3.5 billion years ago. The presence of a river and also a lake in the region has of course left visible traces, several billion years following the drying up of the Red Planet. The landscape you admire has been partly shaped by liquid water, but also, to a large extent, by the wind, the major force of erosion on Mars. L’wind erosion also explains the curiosities that sometimes look like sculpted artefacts, and causes the outcrop of previously buried sedimentary rocks.
Guided tour by NASA of the Martian landscape captured by the Perseverance rover. © NASA, JPL-Caltech
In this landscape, Perseverance has taken several samples from the rocks, some analyzed on site, and others are prepared for capture by the future mission. Mars Sample Returnwhich will be responsible for recovering them and bringing them to Earth for their in-depth study in 2033.
