NASA rover drives through ancient Mars river, snaps stunning view

Long ago, a vigorous river filled an expansive Martian lake. Now, a NASA robot has rumbled through this ghost of Mars' water-rich past.

In early June, the space agency's Perseverance rover drove across the Neretva Vallis river channel, now a wide, dried-up waterway. The Mars robot, en route to examine new areas of interest, looked up the channel and captured a rich Martian desert vista, home to the once swiftly moving water.

Neretva Vallis once fed water into Mars' Jezero Crater,...