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Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Watch: 2 dust devils collide on Mars in rare case of extraterrestrial cannibalism
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. NASA's Perseverance rover recently had a front-row seat to a rare case of Martian cannibalism: It filmed a massive, swirling "dust devil" engulfing a smaller twister on the Red Planet. The roaming robot captured the epic encounter on Jan. 25, on the 1,399th sol (Martian day) of its mission. In the video, a smaller devil, which is barely visible in the images, follows in the wake of a larger twister (moving from left to right), before getting too close and being sucked into the larger vortex. The rover was around 0.6 mile (1 kilometer) from the pair when this happened. The larger devil is estimated to measure around 210 feet (65 meters) wide, while the smaller cone appears to be just 16 feet (5 m) across. It is unclear how tall they were as they were cut off by the rover's field of view. However, a dust devil previously filmed by Perseverance — and with a width almost identical to the larger devil — was predicted to be around 1.2 miles (2 km) tall, or around five times taller than the Empire State Building. "Convective vortices — aka dust devils — can be rather fiendish," Mark Lemmon, a Perseverance senior research scientist with the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, said in a NASA statement. "These mini-twisters wander the surface of Mars, picking up dust as they go and lowering the visibility in their immediate area." Related: Listen to a Martian dust storm engulf the Perseverance rover in eerie, world-first audio recording It is very rare for two dust devils to collide with one another, but when it happens, there are two possible outcomes: "If two dust devils happen upon each other, they can either obliterate one another or merge, with the stronger one consuming the weaker," Lemmon said. "If you feel bad for the little devil in our latest video, it may give you some solace to know the larger perpetrator most likely met its own end a few minutes later," he added. "Dust devils on Mars only last about 10 minutes." The largest devil was likely spinning at a max speed of more than 10 mph (16 km/h), based on data collected from previous sightings. Dust devils are formed by warm air rising from the planet's sun-heated surface. As the air rises, cooler air rushes down to replace it, which is then heated and rises again. This cycle creates a column of rising air that starts to spin increasingly quickly. This phenomenon also occurs on Earth, though the results are usually far less dramatic. "When the incoming air rises into the column, it picks up speed like a spinning ice skater bringing their arms closer to their body," NASA representatives wrote in the statement. "The air rushing in also picks up dust, and a dust devil is born." When the new video was taken, Perseverance was deliberately scouring the horizon in search of the spinning devils to help gather data that can help researchers learn more about this phenomenon. "Dust devils play a significant role in Martian weather patterns," Katie Stack Morgan, a project scientist for the Perseverance rover at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in the statement. RELATED STORIES —NASA's Perseverance rover may already have found signs of life on Mars, discovery of ancient lake sediments reveals —In a 1st, NASA's Perseverance rover makes breathable oxygen on Mars —NASA's Perseverance rover loses its hitchhiking 'pet rock' after more than a year together on Mars Studying them is important because "these phenomena indicate atmospheric conditions, such as prevailing wind directions and speed, and are responsible for about half the dust in the Martian atmosphere," she added. NASA's Viking orbiters captured the first-ever images of Martian dust devils in the 1970s, as the spacecraft spied the swirling structures from space. However, Perseverance has captured some of the best videos of these mini-twisters, including a swarm of around a dozen funnels in July 2021. The rover also captured the first audio recording of a Martian dust devil in September 2021.
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA's Perseverance rover watches as 2 Mars dust devils merge into 1 (video)
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. NASA's Perseverance Mars rover captured a giant dust devil devouring a smaller storm swirling close behind it on the rim of Jezero Crater. Martian dust devils are spinning columns of warm air that pick up dust and debris as they move across the surface of the Red Planet. Perseverance spied the two merging storms on Jan. 25, while exploring the western rim of Mars' Jezero Crater at a location called "Witch Hazel Hill." "Convective vortices — aka dust devils — can be rather fiendish," Mark Lemmon, a Perseverance scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, said in a statement from NASA sharing the video footage of the merging storms. "These mini-twisters wander the surface of Mars, picking up dust as they go and lowering the visibility in their immediate area," Lemmon added. "If two dust devils happen upon each other, they can either obliterate one another or merge, with the stronger one consuming the weaker." Related: Perseverance rover: Everything you need to know RELATED STORIES: — Perseverance rover spots its 1st dust devil on Mars — Perseverance Mars rover figures out how devils and winds fill the Red Planet's skies with dust — Mars dust storm mysteries remain as scientists study the Red Planet Perseverance captured images of the Red Planet storms using one of its navigation cameras. The rover was about 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) from the two merging storms, which were approximately 16 feet (5 meters) wide and 210 feet (65 m) wide, respectively. "Dust devils play a significant role in Martian weather patterns," Katie Stack Morgan, project scientist for the Perseverance rover at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said in the statement. "Dust devil study is important because these phenomena indicate atmospheric conditions, such as prevailing wind directions and speed, and are responsible for about half the dust in the Martian atmosphere." In addition to the two merging dust storms captured in the video foreground, two other dust devils can be seen in the background to the left and center, highlighting just how frequently such storms occur on Mars.
USA Today
04-04-2025
- Science
- USA Today
NASA's Perseverance rover captures 'fiendish' dueling dust devils on Mars: See video
NASA's Perseverance rover captures 'fiendish' dueling dust devils on Mars: See video In a short video released Thursday by NASA, the two dust devils can be seen swirling and spinning on the rim of a feature known as the Jezero Crater. Show Caption Hide Caption Martian dust devil caught by NASA rover A Martian dust devil was captured rolling across the planet's surface by NASA's Perseverance Mars rover. NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/CNRS/INTA-CSIC/Space Science Institute/ISAE-Supaero/University of Arizona A six-wheeled robot wandering the rugged terrain of Mars recently came across two small tornadoes whipping around the planet's surface. In a short video released Thursday by NASA, the two dust devils can be seen swirling and spinning on the rim of a feature known as the Jezero Crater. The landmark is famous as being the landing site of Perseverance, a Martian rover NASA sent to explore the planet about four years ago. Perseverance, about the size of a car, captured the whirling twisters in January about a month after completing an arduous trek from the bottom of the crater up to its rim. Dust devils are common occurrences on the Martian surface that NASA has regularly observed since the 1970s with rovers on the ground and orbiters from above. But what makes Perseverance's most recent sighting of the phenomenon stand out is that in the footage, one larger dust devil appears to eat the other. Mars rover captures small tornadoes Video of the larger dust devil consuming a smaller one was compiled from a series of images Perseverance captured with one of its exterior navigation cameras on its mast, which helps engineers back on Earth steer the rover remotely. When the rover snapped the images Jan. 25 from little more than a half-mile away, the larger twister was about 210 feet wide, while the smaller one trailing it was roughly 16 feet wide. Two other dust devils can also be seen in the background at left and center. At the time, Perseverance's science team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California was using the rover to study and understand the forces at play in Mars' atmosphere. Exploring Mars: Perseverance, Curiosity rovers make separate finds pointing to past life on Red Planet What causes Martian dust devils to form? Dust devils, more officially known as convective vortices, are common features on the surface of Mars that have been regularly observed for decades. These swirling features are formed by rising and rotating columns of warm air that picks up dust as they begin to spin. The "fiendish" mini-twisters "wander the surface of Mars, picking up dust as they go and lowering the visibility in their immediate area," Mark Lemmon, a Perseverance scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, said in a statement. Because the Martian atmosphere is so thin, being caught in such a dust devil would feel like being hit by a gust of wind – albeit a dirty one. If two dust devils happen upon each other, as happened in January, they will either obliterate one another or merge, with the stronger one consuming the weaker. Perseverance, which has imaged dusty whirlwinds many times since 2021, famously used its SuperCam microphone to record the first sounds of a Martian dust devil. But just because dust devils are common doesn't make them easy to capture. Scientists can't predict when they'll appear, and when they do, they only last about 10 minutes, so Perseverance routinely monitors in all directions for them. What to know about Perseverance In July 2020, the Perseverance rover underwent a 200-day, 300-million-mile journey to reach Mars. After landing in February 2021 in the Jezero Crater, the robot, controlled remotely from Earth, spent nearly four years searching for and collecting more than two dozen rock samples – many of which are stored at the first-ever depot on another planet for future retrieval. The bottom of the Jezero Crater – believed to have formed 3.9 billion years ago from a massive impact – is considered to be among the most promising areas on Mars to search for evidence of ancient life. Perseverance's adventures have revealed some insights about the enigmatic Martian geology. Now, after years in the trenches of Jezero, Perseverance in December finally summitted the steep Martian crater to begin the next leg of its journey exploring the crater's rim. NASA and the European Space Agency hope to one day soon retrieve these samples and bring them back to Earth before humans themselves venture to the Red Planet. Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@
CBS News
04-04-2025
- Science
- CBS News
NASA rover captures giant dust devil devouring smaller one on Mars
NASA's Perseverance rover captured images of a Martian dust devil consuming a smaller one on the surface of the red planet. Dust devils are "swirling, sometimes towering columns of air and dust," NASA said in a news release , and are common on Mars. They are formed by rising and rotating columns of warm air that are heated by contact with the planet's surface. The Perseverance rover , which has been on the surface of Mars since 2021, was on the western rim of the planet's Jezero Crater when it spotted the dust devils from a little over half a mile away. The rover took a series of images on January 25 that NASA turned into a video to show the movement of the columns. The larger dust devil was about 210 feet wide. The smaller one was only about 16 feet wide, NASA said. "Convective vortices — aka dust devils — can be rather fiendish," said Mark Lemmon, a Perseverance scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, in the news release. "These mini-twisters wander the surface of Mars, picking up dust as they go and lowering the visibility in their immediate area. If two dust devils happen upon each other, they can either obliterate one another or merge, with the stronger one consuming the weaker." The dust devils are usually short-lived, no matter their size, Lemmon added. "If you feel bad for the little devil in our latest video, it may give you some solace to know the larger perpetrator most likely met its own end a few minutes later," said Lemmon. "Dust devils on Mars only last about 10 minutes." Two other dust devils are visible in the background of the images, to the left and center. Dust devils play a significant role in weather patterns on Mars, and indicate atmospheric conditions including wind directions and speed, NASA said. They are responsible for about half the dust in the Martian atmosphere. Scientists can't predict when dust devils will appear, NASA said in the news release, so the rover routinely monitors for them in all directions. NASA's Viking orbiters were the first spacecraft to photograph Martian dust devils, during the 1970s. In the 90s, NASA's Pathfinder mission imaged one whirlwind from the planet's surface. Perseverance has imaged the whirlwinds on many occasions, including one incident in September 2021 when multiple dust devils were spotted on the floor of the Jezero Crater. The rover has also used its microphone to capture the sound of dust devils .
Yahoo
13-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Curiosity rover spots rare shimmering clouds above Mars
The Sun sets differently on Mars. Part of that is due to its distance from the star (an average of 142 million miles versus Earth's roughly 93 million miles), but it also has to do with the planet's atmosphere. A great example of the effects can be seen in the Red Planet's noctilucent clouds. Latin for 'night shining,' noctilucent clouds (also known as twilight clouds) are responsible for Earth's vibrant red, orange, and purple dawn and dusk skies. If the conditions are just right, they sometimes even take on an iridescent, 'mother-of-pearl' quality. And last month, NASA's Curiosity rover captured both noctilucent and shimmering cloud formations during a Martian sunset. Recorded by Curiosity's Mastcam over 16 minutes on January 17, the brief glimpse also offers an example of how the planet's atmosphere vastly differs from Earth's. Martian clouds are sometimes made of water-based ice, but because the atmosphere is over 95 percent carbon dioxide, CO2 ice can also form at both higher and lower altitudes. These latter clouds are what can take on an iridescent sheen—in the case of last month's recording, they formed between an altitude of 37-50 miles above the surface, and can be seen at the top of the images while water-ice clouds cross the sky beneath them in the opposite direction. These twilight clouds aren't just a rare sight—they may be only capable of forming above specific regions of Mars. Both the Curiosity and Pathfinder rovers (respectively located above and below equator) have documented the atmospheric events. Perseverance, however, is located further into the northern hemisphere, and has not recorded any noctilucent clouds. According to Mark Lemmon, an atmospheric scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, gravitational waves may be to blame. 'Carbon dioxide was not expected to be condensing into ice here, so something is cooling it to the point that it could happen,' he said in a January 11 statement from NASA. 'But Martian gravity waves are not fully understood and we're not entirely sure what is causing twilight clouds to form in one place but not another.'
