This is no ordinary image of Mars.
A bird’s-eye view shared by a NASA satellite features a rare appearance from a lone inhabitant of the planet.
The Zhurong rover in China appears as a small purple dot between the windswept sand dunes.
The car-sized robot landed on the Red Planet in May 2021 and is one of three stationed there along with NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance spacecraft.
Early in its mission, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spotted Zhurong and its lander from above.
Satellite has now shared its latest shot of the alien gadget complete with the long, winding paths it left in its wake.
The image was captured on March 11 by the MRO Camera for the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE).
The probe and the spacecraft’s rear shell can also be seen in the craft, which captures the craft’s entire journey across the surface.
HiRISE team wrote in Blog post.
“In fact, its exact path can be traced from the tracks of the wheels left on the surface.”
HiRISE captures large swathes of Mars with the ability to pick out features as small as a kitchen table.
It helps NASA better understand the evolution of the planet’s surface.
The team that operates the powerful machine is based at the University of Arizona.
They will continue to analyze images of Zhurong – as well as Mars itself – while the rover continues its journey across the surface.
The rover, named after the mythical Chinese god of fire, studies the planet’s topsoil and atmosphere.
In addition to examining the geology of the planet, the machine looks for signs of microscopic life – past and present.
This story originally appeared on the sun It is reproduced here with permission.