NASA's Mars rover Spirithas caught a bevy of dust devils racing across the surface of Mars, whichresearchers compiled into a stunning new movie.
While scaling Husband Hillat its Gusev Crater landing site, cameras aboardSpirit recorded several dust devils blowing across the Martian surface.Researchers condensed the windy devils' 12-minute, 17-second passing into ashort black and white movie clip. [Click hereto see the movie.]
"Windprocesses are the only active processes that we know are happening on Mars," saidrover science team member Patrick Whelley, who hasbeen studying the dust devil images, in a telephone interview. "They're shortterm geologically and occur...[but] they have shaped thelandscape."
Although NASA released thedust devil movie on Aug. 19, Spirit actually photographed them during its 543rdday (July 13, 2005) exploring Mars. The images have not been processed toenhance the contrast of the dust devils.
Spirit first observed dust devils onMars near the beginning of the region's spring season. While they increased infrequency as the season wore on, they dropped off for about two weeks during adust storm only to return in force once it had passed, NASA researchers said.
Whelley said images from Spirit and itsrobotic twin Opportunity show that dust devils perform an important role incontributing to the overall dust content in Mars' atmosphere, and provide anadditional tool for atmospheric modelers.
During early spring on Mars, dustdevils typically wind their way from southwest to northeast across streaks thatcan be seen from orbit. As the season moves forward, the windy objects movefrom northwest to southeast in the same direction of the streaks, Marsresearchers said, adding that scientists are still looking for the big dustdevils that etched those streaks into the surface.
"My hope isto be able to take what we know now at Gusev and thenapply it to the rest of the planet," Whelley said.
- Mars Rover Reaches Summit, and the View is Spectacular
- More about Husband Hill and the Rover
- Mars Rover Special Report
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