NASA's Perseverance rover has transmitted to Earth a detailed 360-degree panorama of the Neretva Vallis region located within Mars' Jezero Crater. The image was assembled from 217 individual images captured by the Mastcam-Z camera on May 20, 2024 — on the 1155th day of the rover's mission according to the Martian calendar (sol). Today, this region is an arid, windswept landscape covered with a thick layer of dust. However, according to NASA scientists' data, billions of years ago a full-flowing river ran through here, emptying into Jezero Crater and forming an ancient lake. Researchers believe this area could have been a favorable location for microbial life to exist in Mars' distant past. Studying the Neretva Vallis channel is one of the key objectives of the Perseverance mission, which since 2021 has been exploring Jezero Crater in search of traces of ancient life and collecting samples of Martian soil for subsequent delivery to Earth. Panoramic images like this one help scientists reconstruct the geological history of the region and better understand how the planet's climate changed. The Perseverance mission continues to collect scientific data that allows NASA specialists to compile a more complete picture of Mars' evolution from a wet world with rivers and lakes to the modern cold desert.