Perseverance’s View of ‘Bunsen Peak’

This view shows a rock nicknamed "Bunsen Peak" where NASA's Perseverance Mars rover extracted its 21st rock core (left) and abraded a circular patch (right) to investigate the rock's composition.

Perseverance's Mastcam-Z camera system took the eight images that make up this mosaic on March 12, 2024, the 1,088th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission to Mars. For scale, the abrasion patch is approximately 2 inches (5 centimeters) in diameter.

In this enhanced-color view, the color bands of the image have been processed to improve visual contrast and accentuate color differences.

Arizona State University leads the operations of the Mastcam-Z instrument, working in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, on the design, fabrication, testing, and operation of the cameras, and in collaboration with the Niels Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen on the design, fabrication, and testing of the calibration targets.

A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).

Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA's Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for the agency by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.

Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, produced this video.

For more about Perseverance: mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/