NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover recently captured a self-portrait at a location named Lac de Charmes during its farthest westward exploration beyond Jezero Crater. The selfie was composed of 61 photos taken by the WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering) camera on the rover's robotic arm on sol 1797, the 1,797th Martian day of the mission. The image shows the rover aiming its mast at the Arethusa rock outcrop, where it created a circular abrasion patch to study the rock’s interior. The western rim of Jezero Crater is visible in the background of this composite image [2][3].
During abrading, Perseverance grinds part of a rock surface to allow the science team to analyze its underlying composition. This process revealed that the Arethusa outcrop consists of igneous minerals likely older than the crater itself. Igneous rocks form underground as molten material cools and solidifies [3].
After the selfie, Perseverance used its Mastcam-Z camera to capture a panorama of the nearby Arbot area within Lac de Charmes on sol 1882. The panorama, made from 46 images, reveals one of the mission's richest geological vistas and highlights a windswept landscape with diverse rock textures. This view assists the science team in planning further investigations of the ridgeline and the area's ancient rock diversity, including megabreccia—large rock fragments possibly ejected by a meteorite impact on the Isidis Planitia about 3.9 billion years ago [1].
The Mastcam-Z panorama has been released in both enhanced color for better contrast and natural color versions, as well as a 3D anaglyph for red-blue glasses. The WATSON camera, used for the rover’s selfie, is operated by Malin Space Science Systems and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory [1].