![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/nasa-perseverance-rover-aug-21-2025-turtle-rock-header-800x466.jpg\")
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NASA\u2019s Mars Perseverance Rover has been exploring Jezero Crater on Mars since it landed on the planet on February 18, 2021. Since then, it has made many remarkable discoveries and captured hundreds of thousands of incredible photos. A recent photo shows a close-up of a Martian rock, it looks a lot like a turtle. <\/p>\n
As Space.com writes<\/a>, a photo Perseverance captured on August 31, the 1,610th Martian day of its mission, looks like the front half of a turtle, complete with its \u201chead\u201d poking out of its \u201cshell,\u201d with a couple of front appendages. To my eyes, it looks like a sea turtle. <\/p>\n The Perseverance rover has 23 total cameras, although seven of them were designed for entry, descent, and landing operations in early 2021. The remaining 16 perform vital navigational, engineering, and scientific tasks, including the Mastcam-Z cameras<\/a> that the rover uses to capture many of its most famous photos<\/a>. <\/p>\n However, in the case of the new \u201cturtle rock\u201d photo, Perseverance used its SHERLOC (WATSON) instrument. SHERLOC, which stands for \u201cScanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals,\u201d is affixed to the rover\u2019s robotic turret arm. SHERLOC works alongside WATSON, or the \u201cWide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering.\u201d WATSON is a high-resolution camera that photographs topographic targets that SHERLOC washes in ultraviolet light. <\/p>\n As NASA demonstrated<\/a> back in May 2021 with the animation shown below, WATSON has some serious resolving power. The camera can capture images with a resolution of 14 micrometers per pixel, allowing scientists to obtain very detailed views of Mars\u2019 fascinating rocks and soil. <\/p>\n This is far from the first time the Perseverance rover has captured photos of intriguing rocks. Last year, the rover captured an incredibly clear image of the Martian landscape that showed vibrant blue rocks<\/a>, raising interesting questions concerning the Red Planet\u2019s complex geological history. <\/p>\n Earlier this year, Perseverance snapped a photo of what looked like a skull<\/a> on Mars, which, while not an actual skull, is an exciting mix of different rock types. <\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/nasa-perseverance-rover-aug-21-2025-turtle-rock-annotated-800x466.jpg\")
Image by NASA\/JPL-Caltech, artistically-bankrupt \u201cdrawing\u201d by me. <\/p>\n![\"Close-up](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/watson-camera-example-perseverance-copy.gif\")
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