Nasa confirms Mars rover got its first piece of rock

Nasa confirmed Monday that its Perseverance Mars rover succeeded in collecting its first rock sample for scientists to pore over when a future mission eventually brings it back to Earth. "I've got it!" the space agency tweeted, alongside a photograph of a rock core slightly thicker than a pencil inside a sample tube. The sample was collected on September 1, but Nasa was initially unsure whether the rover had successfully held onto its precious cargo, because initial images taken in poor light were unclear. Perseverance landed on an ancient lake bed called the Jezero Crater in February, on a mission to search for signs of ancient microbial life.