NASA’s Perseverance rover recently took a selfie on Mars with an unexpected guest: a Martian dust devil. In the photo, a distant whirl of dust, the dust devil is seen approximately five kilometers behind the rover. The photo shoot, taken earlier this month, celebrated Perseverance’s 1,500 sols (Martian days) on Mars, equivalent to 1,541 Earth days. The selfie is a composite image from 59 separate photos taken by the rover’s robotic arm camera.
The photo also shows the rover’s latest sample borehole on the Martian terrain. Perseverance captured the image while parked in a spot referred to as ‘Witch Hazel Hill’, close to Jezero Crater, where the rover has been roving for nearly five months.
Megan Wu, an imaging scientist with Malin Space Science Systems, the camera team, explained to the Associated Press that taking the selfie took about almost an hour of careful arm motion. “It’s worth it,” she explained. Wu further explained that having a dust devil in the background ‘iconicifies’ the photo.
The rover itself is covered in red Martian dust from drilling through many rocks. NASA’s website quotes Justin Maki, imaging lead for Perseverance at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, as describing the importance of the image: the self-portrait ‘gives a great view of the terrain and the rover hardware’.
This fifth selfie taken by Perseverance is the fifth taken by the rover since the beginning of the mission. It was composed using shots shot by the WATSON camera (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and Engineering), which snapped three additional photos focused on the mast of the rover to finish off the composite.
Unveiled in 2020, Perseverance will be responsible for gathering samples from Jezero Crater, an ancient lakebed and river delta that could contain proof of past microbial life.
