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

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.