If you were to add just a splash of color to this image, the landscape of would closely resemble Earth. The team of scientists behind the Perseverance rover has enhanced a breathtaking 360-degree panorama of the with a touch of color. The result is an image that could easily be mistaken for a rocky desert right here on Earth, with only a subtle shift in the color palette to set it apart.
“In this mosaic, we enhanced the color contrast, which highlighted the differences in the terrain and sky,” explained planetary scientist Jim Bell, who oversees the rover’s “eyes”—the two cameras of the multi-color Mastcam-Z system.
The scientist didn’t choose the word “mosaic” by chance. The panorama is actually stitched together from 96 images captured by the rover.
Perseverance (which translates to “persistence” in English) is a the size of a car, designed to explore the Jezero Crater on Mars as part of NASA’s Mars 2020 mission. It was built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and launched toward the Red Planet on July 30, 2020. The rover landed on Mars on February 18, 2021. Perseverance is equipped with 23 cameras and 7 scientific instruments, collecting samples of Martian soil to help researchers delve deeper into the ancient history of the Red Planet.
Atacama? No, Mars
The blue sky in the panorama of the Red Planet is somewhat exaggerated. Astronomers assert that the Martian sky looks quite different. It only appears bluer during sunset, as noted by Science Alert.
But who’s to stop scientists from indulging in a bit of imagination? As a result, even with slight color adjustments, the landscape feels surprisingly familiar. Those sharp rocks, sandy waves, and gentle hills could easily be found in the Atacama Desert. This striking resemblance is why NASA scientists test future rovers in the Chilean desert.
Rover in the Atacama Desert
However, viewing the Red Planet through an Earthly lens is akin to putting on rose-colored glasses. Even in photographs with Earth-like coloring, Mars differs significantly from the Atacama.
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It receives less than half the sunlight that Earth (the third planet from the Sun) does. The volume of Mars’ atmosphere is less than one percent of Earth’s atmosphere. Nevertheless, scientists continue to diligently search for signs of ancient microbial life on the Red Planet using the Perseverance rover.
