Dust Devils on Mars Seen by NASA's Curiosity Rover

On recent summer afternoons on Mars, navigation cameras aboard NASA's Curiosity Mars rover observed several whirlwinds carrying Martian dust across Gale Crater. Dust devils result from sunshine warming the ground, prompting convective rising of air. All the dust devils were seen in a southward direction from the rover. Timing is accelerated and contrast has been modified to make frame-to-frame changes easier to see.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/TAMU

[JDMELLOR]

I never thought watching the wind blow could be so fascinating.

[armancz]

Finally! Let's prepare Matt Damon for mission to grow potatoers up there!

[llantup]

Seeing these dust devils again brought up an old memory: there used to be dust storms that would almost entirely blanket the surface of Mars. They would last quite a long time, too. But I haven't heard of that happening in the last, oh, 20-30 years. Don't they happen anymore?

[coastwalker]

Terrific to see these old pictures again.

[JoseGuerrero-xxoy]

Ahora si, realmente existen vientos en Marte y es fantástico verlo.

[.]

Perseverance is up there to see them again

[xspager]

I'm the only one here who wish Curiosity had a flying drone with a HD color camera?

[rgs]

Bill Thaxton would have been so proud!

[hennynovita]

i litterally dint know about this until now

[ExxylcrothEagle]

So glad there's 'air' on Mars

[thecrystalcrystals]

So the heating of Mars' surface causes the air to rise, and then the temp. of the air makes the gases swirl around? Also, this is pretty cool!

[RunningWormProd]

cool footage! how big do you estimate this dust devils?

[TheRayrayggg]

I bet that guy from SurcureTeam 10 will repost this video and say it's Breaking News footage of a UFO ghost attacking NASA's Curiosity Rover

[ollie]

Mars has a weaker Rayleigh scattering effect than Earth, similar to what you'd see if you were 100, 000 feet up (where air pressure is similar to that of Mars). However as the atmosphere if very dusty it appears more butterscotch than deep blue due to Mie scattering. However on very calm Martian days there may too little dust suspended in the atmosphere it may appear a very deep blue and lighter blue near the horizon.

[CCCorbinoes]

I remember seeing videos of these a while back on a doccumentary. really cool!

[TheRealSkeletor]

I still don't understand how it is even possible for dust devils to form at the levels of atmospheric pressure on Mars.

[chrisdixonstudios]

Dust devil mini tornadoes can clean Rover better than Martian shadows!

[zaldare]

Tasmanian Devil in Mars? Space Jam 2 confirmed!

[fleecemanjenkins]

we need to get Matt Damon on this shit asap

[clintonjohnston]

Another planet with an atmosphere, cool