{"id":195183,"date":"2025-04-04T03:05:21","date_gmt":"2025-04-03T17:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/?p=843443"},"modified":"2025-04-04T03:05:21","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T17:05:21","slug":"perseverance-rover-witnesses-one-martian-dust-devil-eating-another","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=195183","title":{"rendered":"Perseverance Rover Witnesses One Martian Dust Devil Eating Another"},"content":{"rendered":"
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5 min read<\/p>\n

Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\"Dust<\/a><\/figure>
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A Martian dust devil can be seen consuming its smaller friend in this short video made of images taken at the rim of Jezero Crater by NASA\u2019s Perseverance Mars rover on Jan. 25, 2025.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/strong>NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/SSI<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The six-wheeled explorer recently captured several Red Planet mini-twisters spinning on the rim of Jezero Crater.<\/em><\/p>\n

A Martian dust devil can be seen consuming a smaller one in this short video made of images taken by a navigation camera<\/a> aboard NASA\u2019s Perseverance Mars rover. These swirling, sometimes towering columns of air and dust are common on Mars. The smaller dust devil\u2019s demise was captured during an imaging experiment conducted by Perseverance\u2019s science team to better understand the forces at play in the Martian atmosphere.<\/p>\n

When the rover snapped these images from about 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) away, the larger dust devil was approximately 210 feet (65 meters) wide, while the smaller, trailing dust devil was roughly 16 feet (5 meters) wide. Two other dust devils can also be seen in the background at left and center. Perseverance recorded the scene Jan. 25 as it explored the western rim of Mars\u2019 Jezero Crater at a location called \u201cWitch Hazel Hill.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cConvective vortices \u2014 aka dust devils \u2014 can be rather fiendish,\u201d said Mark Lemmon, a Perseverance scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado. \u201cThese 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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