E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
NASA / JPL-Caltech / Univ. of Arizona
A towering dust devil casts a serpentine shadow over the Martian surface in this image, acquired on Feb. 16 by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
A Martian mini-tornado caught on camera by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter brings new meaning to the word "twister."
This isn't the first dust devil to show up on Martian imagery. The whirlwinds have been photographed by NASA probes for more than 30 years, and in some places, the Red Planet's landscape is heavily crisscrossed by dust devil tracks. In 2005, the Spirit rover's time-lapse view of multiple dust devils was made into a movie. But this picture, taken on Feb. 16 as the orbiter passed over the Amazonia Planitia region of northern Mars, has to rank among the most artistic of the dust devil delights.
Scientists estimate that the dust devil rose to a height of more than half a mile (800 meters), with a plume that's about 30 yards (meters) in diameter. A westerly breeze adds a delicate arc to the plume, and the afternoon sun creates a curving, stretched-out shadow.
Dust devils on Mars, like their cousins on Earth, are spinning columns of air that are made visible by the dust they stir up. They typically arise on a clear day when the ground is heated by the sun. As the atmospheric layer near the surface warms, air rises through a pocket in the cooler layer above it, taking on a spin when the conditions are just right.
Martian air is much thinner than our earthly atmosphere, and composed almost entirely of carbon dioxide. But the Red Planet's winds can still pack a huge punch. Over the years, NASA's rovers have benefited from wind-driven "cleaning events" that sweep the dust off their power-generating solar panels. Last month, the Opportunity rover underwent a slight cleaning that put it in a better position to endure the Martian winter — which just goes to show that a devil can be an angel on the Red Planet.
More from Mars:
- The Mars rover stays in the picture
- Watch a dust devil spin in the Martian arctic
- Slideshow: Greatest hits from the Red Planet
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.
Leave a Comment:
This may or may not be a dumb question.....I'm leaning towards dumb! How does Mars form dust devils? Actually what I mean is how do they form in such a weak atmosphere? As I understand it the martian atmosphere is roughly 1% of Earth's. Having never lived in a dry enough climate to see a dust devil first hand, my experience with them is limited to what I've read or seen on tv. I can fully understand how the large dust storms form, but I thought you needed strong localized winds to form a dust devil!?
Dust devils and tornadoes and like are all about the temperature differences. We tend to think about them as hot weather events, but it's about the differences. On Mars, it can be very cold, but the sun can warm the surface to be substantially warmer than the air above it, and that can cause powerful updrafts.
Also, the biggest thing that blocks and slows winds on Earth isn't hills or buildings, its trees and water. The Earth's surface is about 71% water, and every wave is energy stolen from that wind. On Mars, there is still mountains, but no trees or oceans, so winds start and they just blow and blow.
So, there you have it - unrestricted winds and a huge temperature difference from the surface air to the upper air, and Mars is excellent for dust devils and dust storms and huge (planet wide sometimes) storms.
Well said, Todd, very knowledgeable.
To add to what, Todd, has already very well explained; the Martian soil has the same consistency as talcum powder. So it's a very fine and very light material to start with. With these two characteristics it only takes a little bit of wind or turbulence in the atmosphere and you can get quite a commotion.
So now we know if we build bases or colonies on Mars some day ....
We better prepare to send vacuum cleaners ....
Cool Alan , thanks ....
Ooops, sorrry, that's from my personal camera. I macro photographed my first white hair.
If Todd's reason were true, then there should be tons of dust devils on Mars as it is generally flat with the rise and fallen of temperature probably being consistent everywhere. There are obviously other factors involved as well.
It is a little martian penis.
No, it's a smoke from an underground Martian house.
When I was a teenager, it was a hot afternoon and I saw a dust devil coming down our lane. It was only about twenty feet from me as it formed, so of course, I decided to run and jump into it. Ouch! did it ever sting. It was filled with sand and other debris. Hurt my skin, and got into my eyes and hair. Of course, if presented with the same opportunity, I would do it again.
Me too. There remains a bit of the little boy in me to this day.
the air is so thin on Mars,the air temprature drops rapidly just a few meters from the surface,also the wind has to blow 100 MPH just to move dust
Did you holler "Auntie Em, Auntie Em!" as you jumped in?
It seams to me that the martians are sending smoke signals . The change of color of that mini tornado..... Why as it turn into dust turn to a different color than the martian ground? My ignorance must be extreme
Not at all ... I suspect that the dust brought up into the air is finer and lighter than the underlying material. In fact, when a dust devil passes over an area, the trail it leaves behind is markedly darker. Here's a classic picture of dust devil trails crisscrossing Martian dunes:
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap091021.html
Nice photo link Alan ....
That's still odd to me , how it leaves such dark or black trails ....
Like candle scorching's ....
The APOD site rules! It's one of my morning ritual places to go and provoke a little stirring in the most puzzling of all substances in the universe..., the 'ol Grey Matter. ;)
Yep, gotta love APOD!
I don't see a track that is typical of the dust devils pictured on Mars.
Is there the possibility that this could be a thermal gas / water venting as they observed in recent years in the escarpments?
This is obviously a fake photograph as the shape of the shadow is not possible at any sun orientation.
Yeah...suuure, Frank. Just like the Moon landing was fake. Riiiight...;p
It llooks like an invading sperm ! But anyway, the solar flux on Mars is just less than 1/2 on earth at the top of the atmosphere and at the equator at some 600 watts/ sq. meter. I would expect that all or most of that hits the surface on Mars due to a thin atmosphere relative to Earth. And further, the dust devils on Mars occur in confined latitudes plus or minus the Martian equator. On Earth 600 watts/sq.meter on the surface in summer is equivalent to maybe 40 degrees north on perfect days on average.
And some say money spent on unmanned missions in space is a waste. How wrong they are!
Gnarly!! Thank you, NASA! You're worth ever penny.
And the Chinese really want to go there? Or is it just going to be a destination for future Tibetan, Sinjianese and anti-Communist deportees?
Why is the dust-dev white? Why not a mixture of top sediment soils or martian dust? It could be frozen water crystals from the subsoil, but I'm not even sure you could get to that layer without disturbing the upper dust. Could the surface be venting? is there a video or more than one photo?
Here's a link.
http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20050819a.html
Nice link, Thank you Solomon.
solomon--should make everyone realize how lucky we are to be on this planet with its green plants and water. Maybe it would make some think about how badly all of us are screwing things up (wars and everything else) why can't we all just get along???
Why is it the shadow doesnt MATCH
The top of the dust devil is far higher than the base and it being blown away, so it's not the top or the entire column of that is reflected in the shadow.
OutOfBoxThinker, I think what's actually going on is that's not acutally a shadow but the underlying material of the soil. Plus I think this is a false color picture (as many from Mars are) so that might throw things off a bit also. Kinda got me confused for a minute also when I first looked at it.
One more thing, it might be since the picture is taken from overhead that gets your reference points somewhat dis-com-bob-u-lated to. Just a thought...
I wish they would find a planet that had some trees, grass, water. Maybe it would look like the Canadian wilderness or the old west. I would like to be the first to move. They would probably just keep it for the millionairs though and our ruling government. Leave the rest of us peons here so they could raid the earth for their cheap goods.
Don't let 'em fool ya. It's a picture of giant space sperm. Mars is soon to be a zygote.
I hope the next generation of Rovers will be equiped with a means of cleaning their solar panels and not need to rely on the kindness of Dust Angels....
The new rover on the way is nuclear powered, no solar panels
Not even as a contingency? You should always be prepared. How about a wind-powered backup device? Don't just it fail!!
I agree, Wade and the mission is limited to the amount of time the reactor can spit out juice so it will be nothing like the current rovers that just keep going and going and going. I have read that this new rover is much bigger and has way more sensors so a solar panel would not cut it; the heat from the reactor will also keep it toasty warm in the Martian winter.
It's a great picture but the shadow is not serpentine, it's just curved and it doesn't match the shape of the devil itself - wonder why?
Actually, it does. The sunlight is just coming from the far left, and from a very low angle, about 20 - 30 degrees above the horizon I'd guess, streching out the shadow quite a bit. The shadow of the top part extends off the right side of the picture.
In addition, your eyes are using two dimensional logic to make it appear it is not properly shaped. The frame of the photo does not show the WHOLE shadow either. And because of the angle of the sun it doesn't give a good representation of the height of the dust devil. No conspiracy here
Re-examining the photo, I think the suns angle was closer to around 40-45 degrees in elevation, based on the shadows of surface features, and that the ground shadow of the dust devil shown in the picture, lines nicely up to that which would be cast from a little more than what the first half of the plume in the picture would cast.
In other words, as we see the picture, the ground shadow we see is only that being cast from the first half of it's length. Slightly after the point where we see the plume cross over it's ground shadow. The rest of the shadow extends off to the right, off the frame.
... that's totally a scalar death ray ...
Dust devil = alien from outer space. LOL
now this is an article thats at least interesting
You're right, but it's interesting how some people can still make some really stupid comments.
Yeah, I'm gonna call this fake or a distortion. The shadow doesn't match nor the color of the 'dust'.
It does match; see comment #11.1
Yeah this is all hocus pocus. As if we have the ability to build unmanned spacecraft to send to other planets. We can't even get rid of hunger, crime, tooth decay, etc., and they are saying we've sent unmanned missions to Mars. Keep dreaming! The crap useless theories dudes come up with to keep us in awe dwarfs anything that men of the cloth have come up with.
We can't even get rid of hunger, crime, tooth decay, etc., and they are saying we've built "chips" with billions tiniest "transistors" that can do billions calculations per seconds? And somehow they are built into "computers" and "smartphones" that are all connected together, so when a guy posts his thoughts, you can read it on another side of the Earth? Keep dreaming! That's all one big conspiracy.
Exercising your body is all fine and well, but not exercising your brain is just as bad if not worse! You should try it some time, Lysol!
Lysol's remarks remind me of the comments made by the apes in the "planet of the apes" movies. No real analytical process, just accusations in order to defend thier own stupidity. Not saying Lysol is lacking, just an observation.
No, it's a smoke from an underground Martian house.
I agree with Max on this one....... hehe
Is this a new thing msnbc is doing...allowing the author of their stories to participate in the blog? I sort of like it. It maintains a sort of control. Anywho, I checked out that pictute you linked too, at first I had said that that had to be someone's skin with a tatoo gone bad....LOL. But I guess things will appear so different to us from way away! That was a pretty awesome photo though! Thanks!
The shadow does match the shape of the twister, but since the sun is fairly low, the shape is magnified in length and so you are only seeing what I estimate to be the lower half of the twisted. I too thought it looked strange but then thought about how the projection might be affected by the position of the Sun. So, no hoax here (and we really did put men on the moon, too)
Anyone from Denver would know this is a gustnado.
Dust devil - Ha! It's an alien campfire.
I am going to use the republicans base to explain what this is. According to the American evangelicals the Earth is only around 6600 years old so what you are seeing is God making another planet with his/her sperm. Sorry board,had to do it.
As every one see when looking on the surface of Mars that there is no surafce water or a plant. All you can see is red dust, sand and rock. However, this twister or what they call it "dust devil" is an air blown on the surface. It is important natural phenomena to study on the surface of Mars because it tells you about the consolidation and the density of the dust. Also you can see that the dust when it rises above the horizon it changes its color to pale white, that means it consist of different minerals constituence. Also you can see the ripple marks and the sand dunes on the surface that can tell about the prevailing wind direction through out Mars seasons and the change of temperature... There are a lot still to discover yet on Mars, and NASA curiosity rover is now cruising across its journey to the red planned which is expected to arrive at about August. The new American Mars rover carries on board a sophisticated research laboratory to see if the composition of the red plannet dust and rock contain some water!!! Do you think if you have a drilling rig that you can drill couple of hundreds of feet on Mars surface, will you expect to discover water or any other liquid? Just wonder!!! it may be of a different form of water that we are familiar with here on earth...
Ample evidence of water having been on the surface in the past. Very likely sub surface water exists, and probably in abundance
Is Lysol Serious?
Well I wouldn't go drinking it, but it's no big deal to get some on your skin
ROTFLMFAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
looks like steam
Ok i went and looked at the link, it really ust looked like swirls on someones skin. it looked like parasites or something. it was an interesting picture but i just didnt see it.