Nasa's Perseverance rover carries technology to help it avoid landing hazards. [Source: BBC]

The Nasa rover, Perseverance, has successfully landed on the surface of Mars, seven months after leaving Earth.

It’s landing, on the Jezero Crater, means work can now begin searching for evidence of ancient life on the Red Planet.

To do this, the robot will drill and collect samples of rock and soil for analysis at a later date.

Codenamed Mars 2020, the robot will find, categorise and cache rock and dust samples for later return to Earth.