The rover has collected
a "pet rock" tucked inside its left front wheel that has been riding along with Perseverance since early February
So far, its ridden
across 5.3 miles (8.5 kilometers) with the Perseverance rover as it drives across its Jezero Crater home on Mars.
This rock isn't doing
any damage to the wheel, but throughout its journey, it has made periodic appearances in left Hazcam images
Perseverance picked up
the small Mars rock on Feb. 4, At the time, Perseverance was exploring a rock formation called "Máaz
Since then, Perseverance
has carried the rock north across its landing site, and then west across the remains a region called "Kodiak
The rover is currently
in the midst of what NASA calls its Delta Front Campaign and may have drilled into its first sedimentary Mars rock