Photos from NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover let you get lost on another world

In less than two months on the red planet, the most advanced rover ever has already sent back more than 16,000 images. We show you the best so far.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance rover sent back its first image, a tiny thumbnail of its landing spot in Jezero Crater, just moments after its dramatic soft touch-down on Feb. 18. The sedan-size rover has now been cautiously wheeling its way around for several weeks and has already sent back 16,448 total images as of April 1 — and that’s not an April Fools’ gag.

Perseverance is outfitted with a total of 23 cameras, including those meant to be used primarily during the entry, descent and landing phase that’s now obviously over with.

The cameras have different engineering or science purposes, and all the images they capture get relayed back to Earth. Because data from NASA’s science missions is supposed to go into the public domain, all those pics get dumped into a huge and growing database of raw images that’s available online.

Our video team picked out some of the best images sent back so far and put together the remarkable and surprisingly meditative supercut above of the view from Perseverance’s perch on Mars.

After you’ve checked it out, you can keep the ochre-tinted chill vibes going by hitting up this popular 4K panorama put together from Perseverance’s earliest snaps of Jezero.

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