All articles tagged with #mastcam z
NASA's Perseverance rover on Mars used its Mastcam-Z cameras to capture Phobos partially obscuring the Sun, producing Mars' own solar eclipse; the image highlights how robotic explorers expand humanity's reach and offer unique views of cosmic events from the Martian surface.
NASA’s Perseverance rover used the Mastcam-Z camera to produce a grainy composite showing Earth as a tiny bright dot passing behind Mars’ moon Phobos on July 2, 2026. It’s the first time Earth has been photographed from the surface of another planet while an astronomical object occluded it, achieved by stacking nine frames and processing to darken the background; the event also nods to earlier Earth-from-Mars shots by Spirit (2004) and Curiosity (2014).
NASA’s Perseverance rover stitched 96 images from Falbreen into a high-resolution panorama captured by the Mastcam-Z camera, showing a rock on a sand ripple, a “float” rock, an abrasion patch drilled by the rover, and visible rover tracks. The enhanced-color view highlights terrain contrasts, while the natural-color view shows Mars’ rusty skies. The site may be among the oldest terrain the mission has explored, with lighter olivine-rich rocks and darker clay-bearing rocks indicating a diverse geological history.
NASA’s Perseverance rover captured an image on May 13 (Sol 1859) with the Mastcam-Z cameras showing a small stack of rocks on the Martian surface. Scientists say it’s more likely the stack formed by wind erosion (or ancient water exposing and splitting a rock) rather than a deliberate or human-made arrangement, fitting Mars’ wind-dominated geology.
NASA's Perseverance rover captured a video of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter's 47th takeoff on March 9, 2023. The video shows the dust kicked up by the helicopter's rotors as it takes off and begins its 1,444-foot journey to the southwest. The Mastcam-Z imager aboard the rover captured the footage from a distance of 394 feet. The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and is supported by NASA's Science Mission Directorate.