Nasa s Mars landing has been hailed as an extraordinary technological achievement and something akin to magic by Northern Ireland experts.
Its science rover Perseverance, the most advanced astrobiology laboratory ever sent to another planet, streaked through the Martian atmosphere on Thursday and landed safely on the floor of a vast crater.
Its mission is to search for signs of ancient life, and explore and collect samples for future return to Earth from diverse environments on Mars.
Perseverance has since sent back images, which has prompted the space agency to describe it as an amazing accomplishment .
Professor Michael Burton, director of Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, told the Belfast Telegraph: Watching the landing, live on NASA TV, of a spacecraft on another planet was an absolutely amazing experience.
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Nasa’s Mars Perseverance rover has safely landed on the red planet, marking an “amazing accomplishment”, the space agency has announced.
Its mission is to search for signs of ancient life, and explore and collect samples for future return to Earth from diverse environments on Mars.
Perseverance will spend the coming years scouring for signs of ancient microbial life in a mission that will bring back samples from Mars to Earth and prepare the way for future human visitors.
The successful landing of the rover was met with applause and loud cheers across eight rooms as the teams were split up in order to be Covid secure.