NASA's Perseverance rover took its sixth selfie since landing in 2021 — this time at the westernmost point of its entire mission. The self-portrait was assembled from 61 images captured by the WATSON camera on the robotic arm, which performed 62 precise movements over about one hour to build the mosaic.
The selfie was taken on March 11, 2026 (sol 1797) at a location called Lac de Charmes, beyond the rim of Jezero Crater. Perseverance is conducting its fifth science campaign here — the Northern Rim Campaign — and the science is getting increasingly exciting.
The photo shows the "Arethusa" rock outcrop, freshly abraded by the rover (grinding down the surface to expose what's inside). It turned out to be igneous minerals likely older than Jezero Crater itself. Unlike the sedimentary rocks of the delta studied earlier, this is a window into the planet's deep ancient crust, roughly 4 billion years old.
Another find — possible megabreccia: giant rock fragments (some skyscraper-sized) hurled by a massive meteorite impact on Isidis Planitia ~3.9 billion years ago. The team also spotted a feature resembling a volcanic dike — a vertical intrusion of magma that hardened in place and remained standing as softer rock eroded over billions of years.
In 5+ years of operations, Perseverance has abraded 62 rocks, collected 27 cores, and driven nearly 42 km — just short of a marathon distance.