Crocodile Bridge

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover used its Mastcam-Z camera system to capture this 360-degree panorama of a region nicknamed “Crocodile Bridge” on Jezero Crater’s rim. The panorama is made up of 980 images, 971 of which were taken on Dec. 18, 2025, the 1,717th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. An additional nine were taken on Jan. 25, 2026, Sol 1,754. This natural-color view has been processed to show the landscape as the human eye would see it.

Jezero Crater’s rim and the regions around it hold some of the oldest rocks anywhere in the solar system; they serve as time capsules of the Red Planet’s early history, when its crust and atmosphere were still forming. No terrain this ancient exists on Earth, where tectonic plates constantly recycle the surface. (Mars lacks tectonic plates, allowing some of this very old material to be preserved.)

“Crocodile Bridge” represents a transition into an area nicknamed “Lac de Charmes,” which Perseverance will explore for several months later this year.