A glimpse of Mars from NASA's Perseverance rover

NASA landed a new robotic rover on Mars on Thursday, its most ambitious effort in decades to directly study whether there was ever life on the red planet. While the agency has landed other missions on Mars, the $2.7 billion robotic explorers named Perseverance carries a sophisticated set of scientific tools that will bring advanced capabilities to the search for life beyond our planet. Here's a look at the Red Planet from NASA's rover (image credit: NASA):

NASA's Perseverance rover descends to touch down on Mars in a still image from a video camera aboard the descent stage. Credit: Reuters Photo

This image released by NASA shows a high-resolution image of one of the six wheels aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover as it is displayed during a NASA Perseverance rover initial surface checkout briefing. Credit: AFP Photo

A high-resolution still image captured from cameras aboard the descent stage as NASA’s Perseverance rover touched down on Mars as it is displayed during a NASA Perseverance rover initial surface checkout briefing. Credit: AFP Photo

Image sent back by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. Credit: Reuters Photo

Perseverance was the third robotic visitor from Earth to arrive at the red planet this month. Last week, two other spacecraft, Hope from the United Arab Emirates and Tianwen-1 from China, entered orbit around Mars. But NASA’s spacecraft did not go into orbit first. Instead it zipped along a direct path to the surface.

At 3:48 pm, eastern time, controllers at the mission operations center at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Pasadena, California, received word from Perseverance that it had entered the top of the Martian atmosphere at a speed of more than 12,000 mph. The spacecraft was beginning the landing maneuvers that would bring it to a soft stop in just seven anxiety-drenched minutes.

NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image of the area in front of it using its onboard Front Left Hazard Avoidance Camera A.