In a small village in Bosnia, called Jezero (for which the Jezero Crater is named), cheers erupted Feb. 18 as Perseverance made its successful touchdown on the Red Planet. ABC News covered the occasion: “The some 1,300 residents of the earthly Jezero watched the landing with excitement and affection, feeling as if they were a part of NASA’s most ambitious deep space mission yet. Younger residents convened to watch the landing live on a video screen in a modest school gym.”
A Jezero farmer, Nedeljko Sokolovic, told ABC, “We all feel a part of something that’s much bigger than ourselves and our world.” The mayor, Jezero Mayor Snezana Ruzicic, echoed his sentiment: “This was so emotional for us and it was pure happiness to see Perseverance land safely, and all the great attention and honor that was given to our little Jezero, a municipality on Earth that has given its name to a crater on Mars.” He went on: “Also, the relief similarity between our small town of Jezero and the crater of the same name on Mars is great, because it once also had a river-fed lake like we do.” The word “jezero” means “lake” in many Slavic languages.
The International Astronomical Union named Jezero Crater, the site of an ancient Martian lake, in 2007. The 28-mile long crater is located on the western edge of Isidis Planitia, a giant impact basin just north of the Martian equator, according to NASA. The crater was chosen as a landing site “because of its geological riches and other factors that make it the prime location to search for signatures of past life on Mars. NASA said Perseverance should be able to access rocks at Jezero Crater that are as old as 3.6 billion years.”
