You should Google "Perseverance rover."
If you've been following the dramatic success of yesterday's Mars touchdown, you may have Google'd "Perseverance rover" today (Feb. 19). If you did, you probably noticed your page lighting up with (Martian) red fireworks.
As a fun little internet Easter egg, Google is setting off virtual fireworks across screens everywhere: All you have to do is Google that simple phrase. The company is deploying this virtual light show in celebration of NASA successfully landing the Perseverance rover on the surface of the Red Planet yesterday (Feb. 18) as part of the agency's Mars 2020 mission.
Related: See the Perseverance rover dangling above Mars in amazing photo
Live updates: Follow the Perseverance Mars rover mission
Join our forums here to discuss the Perseverance rover on Mars. What do you hope finds?
The rover touched down in Jezero Crater — an ancient lake and delta on the Martian surface that scientists think is an ideal location for the spacecraft to search for signs of ancient life — yesterday afternoon. NASA mission control at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California got confirmation that the rover landed safely yesterday at 3:55 p.m. EST (2055 GMT), about 11 minutes after the landing actually happened due to the time it takes light to cross the distance between the two planets.
Using the first-ever Mars Helicopter, a suite of high-resolution cameras and a variety of experiments and tools, the team behind the mission will search for evidence of ancient life on Mars, explore the planet's terrain, collect samples for a future mission to bring to Earth, and so much more. This rover (and the whole mission) is so out-of-this-world cool, it's certainly worth some fireworks!
Email Chelsea Gohd at cgohd@space.com or follow her on Twitter @chelsea_gohd. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
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