NASA's Perseverance Rover Takes a New Selfie on Mars, Continuing the Exploration of the Red Planet

In recent weeks, the NASA Perseverance rover has taken a new selfie thanks to the WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and Engineering) scientific camera located on its robotic arm, which is then "erased" while still remaining visible in the shadow on the ground. For this image, a mosaic of 61 individual photographs taken on March 11, 2026 (over about an hour) was used, downloaded through the Deep Space Network (DSN), and then assembled on Earth. The area of interest is the edge of the Jezero crater while the rover continues its journey on the Red Planet in search of traces of past life.

As we know, the Mars Sample Return mission has been canceled as it was initially conceived due to cost overruns. This means that China (with the Tianwen-3 mission) could beat the NASA/ESA duo in bringing samples of rock from another planet back to Earth for the first time. However, the mission of NASA Perseverance is not over, and many discoveries await us in the coming years.

The NASA Perseverance rover has taken a new selfie. In the images, a rocky outcrop nicknamed Arathusa can be seen in the area that scientists call Lac de Charmes. On the rock near the Martian rover, a circular abrasion made by onboard instruments is visible to remove the surface part of the stone and allow for an analysis of the lower section that has remained unchanged for millions of years.

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The NASA Perseverance rover is now in its fifth scientific campaign, called the Northern Rim Campaign. As explained by Katie Stack Morgan (a JPL scientist), "we took this image when the rover was in the -Wild West- beyond the edge of Jezero crater – the farthest western area we have been in since we landed just over five years ago. We had just abraded and analyzed the Arathusa outcrop, and the rover was positioned at a spot that provided a beautiful view of both the Jezero rim and the ground closer outside the crater."

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The analyses on Arathusa show that this rock is composed of igneous minerals that likely formed before the Jezero crater itself was created. In particular, this type of rock forms beneath the surface when molten rock cools and solidifies.

Thanks to the Mastcam-Z, it has also been possible to capture a complete overview of the area in front of the Martian rover. This enables engineers to plan the continuation of the mission as well as detect scientifically interesting areas. For example, there are rocks ejected from a meteorite impact in the Isidis Planitia area about 3.9 billion years ago.

Researchers are trying to identify the most significant rocks. Unlike the delta area of Jezero crater, where sedimentary rocks are found, here there are extrusive igneous rocks (lava flows) or rocks formed from meteorite impacts that are even older than the crater itself.

The next step will be to go to the Singing Canyon area to collect further data on the formation of the Red Planet. Currently, NASA Perseverance has collected 30 samples of rock, regolith, and atmosphere, with the latest dating back to July of last year. At present, the rover has traveled 41.93 km in 1859 sols, surpassing the more "senior" Curiosity rover, which reached 36.91 km in 4893 sols.