Sol 0518: Wildcat Ridge Workspace Mastcam-Z Mosaic
This text is based on the NASA/JPL media release for this mosaic, online at https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA24928
Composed of multiple images from NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover, this mosaic shows a rocky outcrop called “Wildcat Ridge,” where the rover extracted two rock cores and abraded a circular patch to investigate the rock’s composition.
The site is in the delta, a fan-shaped area where, billions of years ago, a river once flowed into a lake in Jezero Crater. Scientists consider this area one of the best places on Mars to search for potential signs of ancient microbial life.
The images were obtained by the Mastcam-Z instrument on Aug. 4, 2022, the 518th Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s mission. For scale, the bright circular abrasion patch on the right is approximately 2 inches (5 centimeters) in diameter.
The rock cores obtained by Perseverance – each about the size of a piece of classroom chalk – were sealed in ultra-clean sample tubes. They are currently stored in the rover’s Sampling and Caching System.
The verification of ancient life on Mars carries an enormous burden of proof!
[Note: The preview images embedded in the text here are low-resolution 1/10 scale JPEGs, because the full-resolution versions of these mosaics would take a long time to load on cell phones or tablets/laptops without high-speed internet access. Full-resolution PNG versions can be downloaded with the hyperlinks below each preview.]
Natural & Enhanced:
Left eye color panorama, natural color (view high resolution PNG)
Right eye color panorama, natural color (view high resolution PNG)
Left eye color panorama, enhanced color (view high resolution PNG)
Right eye color panorama, enhanced color (view high resolution PNG)
Anaglyphs:
Left/Right eye RED channel anaglyph panorama (view high resolution PNG)
Left/Right eye BLUE channel anaglyph panorama (view high resolution PNG)
Left/Right eye RGB color anaglyph panorama, enhanced color (view high resolution PNG)
Left/Right eye RGB color anaglyph panorama, natural color (view high resolution PNG)
August 4, 2022