NASA's Perseverance Mars rover secures its 21st rock core sample from “Bunsen Peak”! #mars

Check out this cool animation of NASA's Perseverance Mars rover snagging a sample from a rock nicknamed "Bunsen Peak" with its robotic arm's coring bit. This rock marks the 21st core collected and the 24th sample overall since the mission started. They grabbed this sample on March 11, 2024, which was the 1,088th Martian day, or sol, of the mission.

The animation, made up of 33 images from one of the rover's front hazard cameras, has been cranked up to 390 times its original speed.

One big goal of Perseverance's mission on Mars is to hunt for signs of ancient microbial life, which is pretty exciting stuff! The rover's also tasked with checking out the planet's geology and past climate, all to help pave the way for us humans to explore Mars one day. Plus, it's the first mission to scoop up and stash Martian rock and regolith.

Looking ahead, NASA, teaming up with the European Space Agency (ESA), plans to send spacecraft to Mars to scoop up these sealed samples from the surface and bring them back to Earth for some serious study.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech