The Perseverance mission support group has published a new panorama, where you can see the ancient river delta in the Jezero crater. To date, it represents the most detailed image of the Martian surface in history.
The panorama shows numerous sedimentary deposits, the study of which is the main goal of the mission. The fact is that Mars has not always been a lifeless desert. 3.5 billion years ago, rivers flowed along its surface. One of them flowed into a lake located on the territory of the Jezero crater.
There was a delta at the confluence of the river with the lake, where the sand and mud carried out by it settled. They formed powerful layers of sedimentary deposits. Even after the climate of Mars changed and it lost most of the atmosphere and water, they are still here, reminding of those times when conditions on the surface of the Red Planet were much more favorable.
According to researchers, river deltas are the best place on Mars to search for traces of ancient life. Perseverance has already conducted a chemical analysis of several stones and taken a number of samples. In the future, it is planned to return them to Earth with the help of a joint American-European mission.
The panorama also shows a number of other interesting details. You can pay attention to the unusual shapes of many Martian stones. This is due to wind erosion. For billions of years, it has “cut” the cobblestones, giving them an exotic look by the standards of our planet. The panorama also includes traces left by Perseverance itself.
The image was obtained using the Mastcam-Z camera. It was made up of 1,118 individual images taken between June 12 and June 20. Its resolution is 2.5 billion pixels.
According to https://mars.nasa.gov
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