Nasa

Nasa launches Perseverance rover in mission to find evidence of life on Mars – video

Nasa has successfully launched its next-generation Perseverance rover on a seven-month journey to Mars in search of evidence of ancient microbial life on the red planet. 

The car-sized robot will attempt to land on the Jezero crater – which may have been a lake more than 3.5bn years ago – where it will gather information about Mars’s geology, atmosphere and environmental conditions.

Scientists hope the samples it collects could hold clues about whether there was ever life on the planet.