NASA's Mars Perseverance snaps a selfie as a Martian dust devil blows by

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – The latest selfie by NASA's Perseverance rover at Mars has captured an unexpected guest: a Martian dust devil.

Resembling a tiny airy puff, the twirling particulate devil popped up 3 miles (5 kilometers) down the rover during this month’s photograph shoot. Released Wednesday, the selfie is simply a composite of 59 images taken by the camera connected the extremity of the rover’s robotic arm, according to NASA.

It took an hr to execute each the limb movements indispensable to stitchery the images, “but it's worthy it,” said Megan Wu, an imaging idiosyncratic from Malin Space Science Systems, which built the camera.

“Having the particulate devil successful the inheritance makes it a classic," Wu said successful a statement.

The representation — which besides shows the rover's latest illustration borehole connected the aboveground — marks 1,500 sols oregon Martian days for Perseverance. That's equivalent to 1,541 days connected Earth.

Perseverance is covered with reddish dust, the effect of drilling into dozens of rocks. Launched successful 2020, it’s collecting samples for eventual instrumentality to Earth from Jezero Crater, an past lakebed and stream delta that could clasp clues of immoderate past microbial life.

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