Jezero crater, Mars

Description: This is a high-resolution oblique view of the southern edge of the delta deposit in Jezero crater, the landing site for the Perseverance Mars rover. In the foreground, a butte of delta material stands above the crater floor. The floor itself shows two distinct textures: some areas are smooth with faint fractures, other areas are rougher and are partly covered by small dunes. At the foot of the main delta deposit, fine-scale layers are visible. These are thought to be composed of sediment deposited on the Jezero lake bed. Similar sediments on Earth are excellent at concentrating and preserving evidence for past life, so these fine beds are a primary target of the Perseverance rover mission. The foreground of this image is a mosaic of multiple precisely aligned images from the HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), and has a resolution of 25 centimeters per pixel. The more distant landscape shown here is a mosaic of images from the Context Camera, also on MRO and has a resolution of 6 meters per pixel.