NASA's Perseverance rover often shares incredible Mars photos of the planet's dunes and mountains — but what in the world is going on beneath the rover? Among all the tools at humanity's disposal in 2022, Perseverance is one of our best assets for charting the Red Planet. Since landing on Mars in February 2021, Perseverance has repeatedly proven its worth. From collecting rock samples to sharing thousands of photos of its journies, it's impossible to overstate just how important it's really been.
One of the more exciting aspects of Perseverance is how it's found unusual sightings in some of its pictures. While many photos are uploaded to NASA's servers and go on without much fanfare, Perseverance has spotted some pretty humorous things, too. In October, the rover spotted a rock formation that looked strangely similar to a frog. Another photo from earlier this month revealed a bunch of rocks mimicking a crashed spaceship on the planet.
This all poses an interesting question. If Perseverance has seen so many bizarre things while looking at the Martian world ahead of it, are there also unusual things on the ground underneath the rover? Thanks to a bunch of new photos from Perseverance, we get to actually answer this question. The rover uploaded a huge batch of Mars photos on January 23, many of which show Perseverance looking at the ground directly beneath its wheels. While there aren't any frog or spaceship rocks here, the images are still incredible to look at. The first one (seen above) shows a variety of rocks hiding below Perseverance. There are three larger rocks, a few smaller chunks joining them, and seemingly endless pebbles everywhere you look.
More Detailed Looks At What's Underneath Perseverance
But that's not the only picture Perseverance took of the ground below it. The rover also shared the above two images, both of which reveal different terrain the rover is traversing. The photo on the left shows a rock jutting next to Perseverance's wheel, with a sea of small pebbles behind it. The picture on the right doesn't have any pebbles, though it does reveal a couple of rocks hiding under a blanket of Mars' endless sand. They have a distinct orange/yellow color and appear quite weathered (likely the result of millions of years of wind and sandstorms).
Since Perseverance spends most of its time looking at the Martian sky, dunes, etc., it's exciting to take a look at a part of Mars that usually gets overlooked — the ground Perseverance is driving on. NASA's rover is constantly seeing stunning sights ahead of it, and as these pictures reveal, its frequent driving paths are just as interesting.