The NASA video explores the 2.5 billion pixel mosaic captured by Perseverance.
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JACARTA – The American Space Agency (NASA) has released a video planet Mars showing the landscape in stunning detail. The footage explores the 2.5 billion pixel mosaic captured by Perseverance, the NASA rover that made a spectacular landing on the red planet in February 2021.
Reported by Digital TrendsThursday (9/15/2022), this is the most detailed view ever created of a distant planet and consists of 1,118 individual images captured by two Perseverance Mastcam-Z cameras.
It should be noted that the colors have been enhanced to increase visual contrast and highlight any color differences. NASA says this makes it easier for its science team to accurately interpret the landscape.
The image shows a view from the edge of the river delta into the Jezero crater, which filled 3.5 billion years ago but was empty as of Wednesday (9/14/2022).
In the video, Rachel Kronyak, a member of Perseverance’s science operations team, comments on the beautiful, highly detailed views, drawing viewers’ attention to the various points of interest that have emerged from exploring the rover so far.
They include a distinctive layered rock formation atop a 32-foot high delta cliff. We can also see how some of these rocks broke and fell to the bottom.
Also note the incredible “balanced rock,” found on a larger rocky part of the cliff, as well as the rover’s tire tracks crisscrossing the planet’s dusty surface.
Kronyak explains how Perseverance perforated and safely preserved rock samples as part of efforts to determine whether Mars once harbored any life, a key part of the rover’s mission.
The collected material will be recovered and returned to Earth on another mission so that scientists can study it using advanced analytical tools, giving us a clearer picture of the existence of life there. Such discoveries could help us learn more about how life on Earth developed.
Perseverance is assisted during its mission by a small drone-like machine called Ingenuity. In April last year, the engine made history when it became the first aircraft to perform controlled and motorized flight to another planet and has since performed more than 30 flights of varying complexity.
Aerial images from Ingenuity’s onboard camera helped the Perseverance team plan more efficient routes for its ground rover. The plane was so successful that engineers plan to build more advanced versions for future interplanetary missions.
