NASA confirmed on Monday that its Perseverance Mars rover has collected its first rock sample from the red planet. A future mission will eventually brings it back to Earth.
"I've got it!" the space agency tweeted, alongside a photograph of a rock core slightly thicker than a pencil inside a sample tube.
The sample was collected on September 1, but NASA was initially unsure whether the rover had successfully held onto it, because initial images taken in poor light were unclear.
"This is a momentous achievement and I can't wait to see the incredible discoveries produced by Perseverance and our team," NASA administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement.
Perseverance's sampling and caching system is the most complex mechanism ever sent to space, with over 3,000 parts.
Perseverance landed on an ancient lake bed called the Jezero Crater in February. It's on a mission to search for signs of ancient microbial life.
Its first attempt at taking a sample in August failed after the rock was too crumbly to withstand the robot's drill.