Let's celebrate #AstronomyDay with this image taken today by Mars rover Perseverance's SHERLOC Autofocus and Context Imager (ACI).
This is the first such image of a rock sample since Dec 16, 2023, when the dust cover of the camera and laser spectroscopy instrument got stuck. It is still stuck, but in an open position and its auto-focus mechanism is nonoperational.
The camera took a sequence of images from different distances; the middle ones are in focus.
