NASA's Perseverance Rover Captures All The Beauty Of Mars In A Single Photo

Perseverance regularly shares photos of Martian rocks, dunes, and the planet's gorgeous sky. This latest picture has all of those in one shot.

NASA's Perseverance rover has captured a lot of excellent Mars photos since it landed on the Red Planet in February, but this latest one may be among its best yet. Space exploration in 2021 is a pretty amazing thing. Astronomers have seemingly endless tools and instruments to look into the sky above, make groundbreaking discoveries, and easily share those results with everyone on Earth.

This is perfectly evident with all of the space photos that are regularly available today. A few years ago, looking at faraway planets and galaxies was all but impossible. Now, anyone with an internet connection can hop online and see photos of celestial objects millions of light-years away. One of the many tools making this exploration so accessible is Perseverance. NASA landed Perseverance on Mars this February to collect rock samples and find signs of ancient life. However, it also spends much of its time taking thousands of photos of the planet — all of which are available for everyone to see for free.

There are usually different types of Mars pictures Perseverance shares. Some showcase the planet's massive dunes, others examine its strange rocks, and the rover occasionally looks at Mars' eerie yellow sky. In the photo above, the rover gets an amazing look at all three. This was captured by Perseverance on December 21 using its Left Mastcam-Z camera. Towards the right is a small hill littered with rocks of varying shapes and sizes. The middle of the picture reveals an empty valley of sand and pebbles. Off in the distance is a gigantic dune that appears to extend forever. And, above all of this, Perseverance gets a gorgeous view of the yellow Martian sky.

One Year Of Incredible Mars Photos

This is certainly one of the most complete Mars photos Perseverance has ever shared — but it's also far from the only one that caught our eye this year. In October, Perseverance spotted a bizarre rock standing alone on a large sand dune. On top of the odd placement, it also featured an uncanny resemblance to a frog here on Earth. Another photo allowed Perseverance to get up-close and personal with Mars' grainy and yellow sand, revealing just how intricate it truly is.

In short, Perseverance has made sure to keep 2021 as interesting as possible. Whether it's looking at head-scratching rocks or awe-inspiring views of Martian mountains, the rover's done an incredible job of bringing the Mars experience to everyone back on Earth. 2022 stands to be an even bigger year for the rover, and we can't wait to see what it finds next.