The underside of a Martian dust devil was captured as it moved along the western rim of Mars’ Jezero Crater by NASA’s Perseverance rover on August 30, 2023, the 899th Martian day or sol of the mission. The video, sped up 20 times, consists of 21 frames taken four seconds apart by one of the rover’s Navcams.
Much weaker and generally smaller than tornadoes on Earth, dust devils are one mechanism that moves and redistributes dust around Mars. Scientists study it to better understand the Martian atmosphere and improve their weather models.
Using data from the imagery, mission scientists determined that the dust devil was about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) away, at a location dubbed “Thorofare Ridge,” and moving east to west at about 12 mph (19 kph). They calculated its width to be about 200 feet (60 meters). And although only the bottom of the 387-foot (118-meter) whirlpool was visible in the camera frame, scientists were also able to estimate its full height.
“We don’t see the top of the dust devil, but the shadow it casts gives us a good indication of its height,” said Mark Lemmon, a planetary scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and a member of the Space Science Institute. Perseverance science team. “Most of them are vertical columns. If this dust devil were configured that way, its shadow would suggest that it is about 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) tall.
2023-10-22 21:15:46
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