NASA's Mars Perseverance rover captures new selfie featuring a Martian dust devil
The latest selfie by NASA's Mars Perseverance rover has captured an unexpected guest: a Martian dust devil.
Resembling a small pale puff, the twirling dust devil popped up 3 miles behind the rover during this month's photo shoot. Dust devils, a combination of air and dust, are common on Mars.
Released Wednesday, the selfie is a composite of 59 images taken by the camera on the end of the rover's robotic arm, according to NASA.
This image provided by NASA shows Perseverance taking a selfie on May 10, 2025.
NASA via AP
It took an hour to perform all the arm movements necessary to gather the images, "but it's worth it," said Megan Wu, an imaging scientist from Malin Space Science Systems, which built the camera.
"Having the dust devil in the background makes it a classic," Wu said in a statement.
The picture — which also shows the rover's latest sample borehole on the surface — marks 1,500 sols, or Martian days, for Perseverance. That's equivalent to 1,541 days on Earth.
Perseverance is covered with red dust, the result of drilling into dozens of rocks. Perseverance, which landed on Mars in 2021, is collecting samples for an eventual return to Earth from Jezero Crater, an ancient lakebed and river delta that could hold clues to any past microbial life.
Last month, released images showed a Martian dust devil consuming a smaller one on the surface of the red planet.
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