NASA just released a cache of tantalizing photos from its Perseverance rover after landing on Mars Thursday, with one showing the rover getting dropped off by the rocket-powered platform it used to gently descend on the Red Planet’s surface. Scientists are poring through hundreds of images and expect to release more — including videos and audio — in the coming days.
Photo: NASA/JPL
The SUV-sized Perseverance rover touched down at Mars’ Jezero crater at 3:55PM ET on Thursday, surviving a seven-month journey from Earth and a blazing hot, seven-minute plunge through the Martian atmosphere. A jetpack called Skycrane gently lowered Perseverance to the ground on a set of…