On September 14, NASA shared the most detailed image of the surface of Mars ever, along with a video that gives us a new and clearest panoramic view of the surface of the red planet.
Video explores detailed panoramic images of the surface of Mars with a resolution of 2.5 billion pixels. Photo: NASA
This image was compiled by NASA from 1,118 photos taken from the Mastcam-Z camera system mounted on the Perseverance robot - NASA's most advanced autonomous robot, launched to Mars from Cape Canaveral on July 30, 2020. The photos were taken between June 12 and 20.
The new 2.5 billion pixel colorized version of the Mars panorama weighs 3.85 GB and has a resolution that far exceeds the Gale Crater panorama from the 2020 Curiosity rover (1.8 billion pixels).
The image shows a panoramic view of Mars, including rocks, sedimentary rocks, mountains, cliffs, sand, sky, and a portion of the rover. Viewers also get a firsthand look at an ancient river delta in the Jezero Crater on the Martian surface, an important place to explore due to its history of water.
Perseverance is tasked with searching for signs of ancient microbial life to answer the question of whether Mars once had microbial life, paving the way for humans to explore the Red Planet in the future.
Currently, the autonomous robot is collecting samples in the delta region to bring back to Earth for future research.