PIA24092: Perseverance's PIXL at Work on Mars (Illustration)
In this illustration, NASA's Perseverance Mars rover uses the Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL), which will help search for signs of ancient microbial life in rocks.
 Mission:  Mars 2020 Rover 
 Spacecraft:  Perseverance
 Instrument:  Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL) 
 Product Size:  10000 x 5625 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  JPL 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA24092.tif (97.31 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA24092.jpg (4.965 MB)  

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Original Caption Released with Image:

In this illustration, NASA's Perseverance Mars rover uses the Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL). Located on the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm, the X-ray spectrometer will help search for signs of ancient microbial life in rocks.

Both PIXL and Perseverance were built and are operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

For more information about the mission, go to https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Image Addition Date:
2020-09-22