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NASA ’s Perseverance roamer just landed on the Martian surface , and it has already send home its first two double .
The wanderer put down on the Red Planet on Thursday ( Feb. 18 ) after an unfathomably fast dip through the atmosphere , keep abreast by a rapid deceleration thanks to a never - before used skycrane . The skycrane then guided the robotic laboratory the remaining 65 feet ( 20 m ) to the aerofoil using cable .
This is the first image Perseverance beamed home from its landing site immediately upon touching down on Thursday (Feb. 18).
The picture come from the big machine ’s hazard - sense " hazcams , " which make up an array of six lenses for stereophonic vision on the front and back of the roamer . The first picture , above , comes from one of the front hazcams , and the second image , below , comes from one of the rearward hazcams . The hazcams have dust covers on them , so the images are lower quality than those that should finally issue forth from the rover ’s 15 other camera . Together , they make up the first images ever sent to Earth from within Jezero Crater .
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This image shows the first shot of the Martian surface captured by the rover’s rear hazcam.
Perseverance has extra cameras mount on its head and subdivision and a television camera to observe the sample it collects in its cache . During landing , four extra camera recorded the descent from different view , and the full movie should upload to Earth in the coming days .
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This image shows the first shot of the Martian surface captured by the rover’s rear hazcam.
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All of this imaging technology has a role : to start the rover to make its way , under supervision from NASA , around Jezero Crater and examine the ancient rock and river delta remnant there for signs of ancient microbial life . It ’s possible that one of these cameras will eventually beam home an image of the sample that contains the first warm touch of ancient life ever observe on Mars .
in the beginning published on Live Science .
