Google search celebrates landing of NASA’s Perseverance on Mars – CNET [CNET]

If you’re searching for news about Perseverance, NASA’s latest Mars rover, Google has a treat for you to help celebrate the rover’s successful landing on the red planet.

The one-ton mobile laboratory made a slow descent Thursday afternoon to an ancient lake bed on Mars, ending an episode in the mission dubbed “the seven minutes of terror” because a lot of things can go wrong that would derail the mission. Perseverance landed at the Jezero Crater, which is believed to have once been covered with water, perhaps representing a site where proof of life might be found.

The mission heralds a new era in Mars exploration, and to celebrate the successful touchdown, Google set off fireworks – on its search engine, that is. A simple search for Perseverance will launch an easter egg of virtual pyrotechnics to your search results page.

While the Perseverance mission is scheduled to last for one Mars year – the equivalent to about 687 Earth days – there’s no saying how long Google’s celebration will stick around, so go check out the show while we await something that might really knock our socks off.