This car-sized rover, stationed approximately 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) away, meticulously documented the event.
On August 30, 2023, NASA’s Perseverance rover witnessed a captivating display of a dust devil swirling near the western rim of Mars’ Jezero Crater
The whirling phenomenon exhibited a lateral movement from east to west at a speed of about 12 mph (19 kph), boasting a width of roughly 200 feet (60 meters). Although the upper portion remained elusive in the frame, scientists, led by Perseverance team member Mark Lemmon, inferred its height through the shadow it cast.
Mark Lemmon, a planetary scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, elucidated, “Most are vertical columns. If this dust devil swirling were configured that way, its shadow would indicate it is about 1.2 miles (2 km) in height.”
Perseverance harnessed its navigation cameras to snap 21 images of this natural marvel. The resultant images were seamlessly woven together to create a sped-up video, accelerated by a factor of 20.
Having touched down in the expansive Jezero Crater in February 2021, Perseverance embarked on a mission to unearth traces of ancient Martian life and amass numerous samples slated for return to Earth.
This crater, a once-habitable locale, housed a substantial lake and a river delta eons ago. Over its sojourn on the Red Planet, Perseverance has cataloged numerous dust devil swirling. Notably, in September 2021, it recorded audio of one of these atmospheric vortices, marking a historic milestone in Martian exploration.
NASA lauds Perseverance’s contributions, emphasizing that these dust devil swirling observations bolster our comprehension of Mars’ atmosphere and refine predictive models for Red Planet weather.
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