Here Are the First Images From NASA's Perseverance Rover

The black and white images show the surface of Mars
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 19, 2021 1:16 AM CST
Here Are the First Pictures From NASA's Perseverance Rover
This photo made available by NASA shows the first image sent by the Perseverance rover showing the surface of Mars, just after landing in the Jezero crater, on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021.   (NASA via AP)

NASA's Perseverance, the biggest and most advanced rover the agency has ever sent, landed on Mars Thursday to cries of jubilation from ground controllers at the space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Minutes later, the rover sent back its first two images from the red planet, the AP reports. The first shows Perseverance's own shadow on the Martian surface; it landed in the Jezero Crater. The second is another image of the pockmarked surface of the planet.

Space.com notes that the photos were taken by hazard cameras attached to the rover and with the covers still attached to the camera lenses for their protection; they are black and white and grainy, and future images "will be much more impressive." NASA chose the Jezero Crater as the landing spot because scientists believe it was a lake when the planet was covered in water, and they think studying the rocks and sediment there can help them with the search for potential traces of past life on the planet. (More Perseverance stories.)

Here Are the First Pictures From NASA's Perseverance Rover
This photo made available by NASA shows the second image sent by the Perseverance rover showing the surface of Mars, just after landing in the Jezero crater, on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021.   (NASA via AP)
Here Are the First Pictures From NASA's Perseverance Rover
In this photo provided by NASA, members of NASA's Perseverance Mars rover team watch in mission control as the first images arrive moments after the spacecraft successfully touched down on Mars, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.   (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)
Here Are the First Pictures From NASA's Perseverance Rover
In this photo provided by NASA, members of NASA's Perseverance rover team react in mission control after receiving confirmation the spacecraft successfully touched down on Mars, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The landing of the six-wheeled vehicle marks...   (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)
Here Are the First Pictures From NASA's Perseverance Rover
Images from Nasa are streamed live showing the landing of NASA's Perseverance on Mars, shown on Piccadilly Lights in central London, Thursday Feb. 18, 2021. The Mars rover landing mission begins it's search for traces of life after the successful landing, to explore and collect samples for future return...   (Yui Mok/PA via AP)
Here Are the First Pictures From NASA's Perseverance Rover
In this photo provided by NASA, members of NASA's Perseverance Mars rover team watch in mission control as the first images arrive moments after the spacecraft successfully touched down on Mars, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.   (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)
Here Are the First Pictures From NASA's Perseverance Rover
David Buecher, program manager, celebrates as he watches the successful landing on Mars of NASA's Perseverance rover is broadcasted at Lockheed Martin Space's Waterton Campus in Littleton, Colo., on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021. Buecher designed the separation hardware for the heat shield for the Mars 2020...   (Chancey Bush/The Gazette via AP)