ANTARIKSA — Phenomena commonly seen by people in desert areas of Earth are also visible on the barren surface of the planet Mars. NASA’s Perseverance, which was exploring Mars, again encountered highly rotating dust and immediately reported it to Earth.
The car-sized robot took several pictures of dust devils dancing on the western edge of Mars’ Jezero Crater on August 30, 2023. Mission team members on Earth calculated that the tornado was about 4 kilometers from Perseverance and was moving from east to west at a speed about 12 mph (19 kph).
The width of the dust circle is around 60 meters and its height is predicted to be around 2 km. “We don’t see the top of the dust devil (because its tip is outside the image frame), but the shadow it casts gives us a good indication of its height,” said Perseverance science team member Mark Lemmon.
The planetary scientist at the Space Science Institute Boulder, Colorado said that most tornadoes are in the form of vertical columns. “If this dust devil were configured that way, its shadow would show it to be about 1.2 miles (2 km) high.”
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Perseverance captured 21 images of dust devils using one of its navigation cameras. The mission team stitched the photos together to create a new video, sped up 20 times.
Perseverance landed on the 45 kilometer surface of Jezero Mars in February 2021. It is on a mission to look for signs of past life on the Red Planet.
During its nearly three-year mission, Perseverance has collected dozens of capsules containing samples to be returned to Earth in the future. “Jezero is a great place for such work,” said mission team members. The crater is believed to have housed a large lake and river delta billions of years ago.
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Perseverance has detected dozens of dust devils during its time over the red Martian soil. In September 2021, he captured audio from one of these whirlwinds, and it was a first in the history of Mars exploration.
“The dust devil observations help scientists better understand the Martian atmosphere and improve modeling of the Red Planet’s weather,” NASA officials said. Source: Space.com
2023-09-30 05:07:00
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