NASA’s Perseverance Rover takes ‘classic’ selfie on Mars with unexpected guest

NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover managed to accidentally capture a cool natural phenomenon in the background of a recent selfie it took on the Red Planet.

Perseverance has been beaming images of Mars back down to Earth since it landed on the planet back in February 2021. 

The snap is actually a composite of 59 images taken by the NASA rover’s camera. 

In all, it takes around an hour for the Perseverance’s robotic arm to perform all the necessary movements to gather and collect the images.

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Since landing on the planet in 2021, the Perseverance rover has made some incredible discoveries, like detecting organic molecules that could be potential proof of ancient microbial life, or unearthing this black and white striped rock that was ‘unlike any seen on Mars before’. 

To mark its 1,500th sol (or Martian day) on the planet on May 10, Perseverance captured a new selfie while in an area nicknamed Witch Hazel Hill and bounced it back down to Earth. 

But the rover was photobombed by a neat natural phenomenon.

If you look just left of center on the image, below the horizon, there’s a small visible puff of air, which is actually a Martian dust devil in action. 

Justin Maki, Perseverance imaging lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said the shot gave a ‘great view’ of the local landscape. 

The shot also gave the team a valuable chance to assess the state of the rover after spending 1,500 sols, or 1,541 Earth days, on the planet. 

“The rover self-portrait at the Witch Hazel Hill area gives us a great view of the terrain and the rover hardware,” Maki said. 

“The well-illuminated scene and relatively clear atmosphere allowed us to capture a dust devil located three miles to the north in Neretva Vallis.”

The images were taken when the sun was at a high angle, which helped to illuminate the rover’s deck – the dust devil in the background is just a little added bonus. 

“Having the dust devil in the background makes it a classic. This is a great shot,” imaging scientist Megan Wu said. 

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