NASA’s Perseverance captures dust-filled Martian whirlwind

The decrease portion of a Martian dust satan was captured transferring alongside the western rim of Mars’ Jezero Crater by NASA’s Perseverance rover on Aug. 30, 2023, the 899th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The video, which was sped up 20 instances, consists of 21 frames taken 4 seconds aside by one of many rover’s Navcams.

A lot weaker and usually smaller than Earth’s tornadoes, dust devils are one of many mechanisms that transfer and redistribute dust round Mars. Scientists examine them to raised perceive the Martian environment and enhance their climate fashions.

Utilizing knowledge from the imagery, mission scientists decided that this explicit dust satan was about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) away, at a location nicknamed “Thorofare Ridge,” and transferring east to west at about 12 mph (19 kph). They calculated its width to be about 200 ft (60 meters). And whereas solely the underside 387 ft (118 meters) of the swirling vortex are seen within the digicam body, the scientists might additionally estimate its full top.

“We do not see the highest of the dust satan, however the shadow it throws provides us a great indication of its top,” stated Mark Lemmon, a planetary scientist on the House Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and a member of the Perseverance science group. “Most are vertical columns. If this dust satan have been configured that approach, its shadow would point out it’s about 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) in top.”

Mud devils, which happen on Earth as nicely, type when rising cells of heat air combine with descending columns of cooler air. The Martian variations can develop to be a lot bigger than these discovered on Earth. And whereas they’re most outstanding through the spring and summer months (Mars’ northern hemisphere, the place Perseverance is positioned, is presently in summer season), scientists cannot predict once they’ll seem at a selected location. So Perseverance and its fellow NASA Mars rover Curiosity routinely monitor in all instructions for them, taking pictures in black-and-white to cut back the quantity of information despatched to Earth.