NASA’s new recording of a Martian dust devil is both mesmerizing and terrifying. The video, taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), shows a spinning column of dust and sand up to 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) high in the atmosphere of Mars. The MRO recorded the video on July 25, 2016, during an event that lasted about an hour. The camera captured several different views of the dust devil over a period of about 20 minutes. Dust devils are common on Earth, but they are relatively rare on Mars because the planet lacks an atmosphere and does not have much dust. Dust devils form when warm air rises and cools quickly, causing a vortex to form. ..
Nearly every rover that’s been to Mars has encountered a dust devil, but the Perseverance rover has recorded footage of what a dust devil sounds like on the red planet for the very first time. The rover is equipped with a microphone, and the dust devil itself passed directly over the rover on September 27th, 2021, allowing it to catch and record its sound for mankind to see.
The result? You can check it out by yourself right here. The microphone captured the sound of Martian wind and the sound of dust grains while they hit the rover.
The rover also captured some images as the dust devil passed by, although they don’t show much. It also captured measurements of the atmospheric pressure dropping steeply while this happened.
New developments have shown us several aspects of how things look on Mars. Recently, we saw footage of how clouds on Mars look like. It’s pretty exciting footage that shows that while the conditions for life on both Earth and Mars might be wildly different, we actually have a lot in common with our red neighbor.
Source: NASA
