NASA captures a surprising 1.2-mile-high “dust demon”

NASA’s Perseverance rover has captured extraordinary images of an impressive whirlpool, also known as a “dust demon.”dancing on the surface of Mars.

On August 30, during the 899th Martian Sol, the Perseverance rover’s navigation cameras recorded this swirl on an elevation called Thorofare Ridge. According to NASA, this tornado was taller than a medium-sized tornado in the United States and five times taller than the Empire State Building.

In a press release, NASA and CalTech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory reported that the small tornado was captured for approximately 84 seconds. as it formed over the nearby ridge, a few kilometers away. According to the agency’s calculations, this tornado It was traveling at a speed of approximately 12.4 miles per hourwas about 200 feet wide and reached a staggering height of about 1.2 miles high, although the top of the tornado could not be seen due to video limitation.

“We don’t see the top of the dust devil, but the shadow it casts gives us a good indication of its height,” said Mark Lemmon, a planetary scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and a member of the Perseverance science team. “Most are vertical columns. If this dust devil were configured like this, its shadow would indicate that it is about 2 km [1,2 millas] Tall”.

“Dust demons” on Mars

These “dust demons” on Mars form due to processes similar to those that occur on Earth. Sunlight heats the Martian soil, causing air near the surface to rise and cold air to descend to fill the empty space.

Under the right conditions, a vortex forms and the air rotates as it rises. When the ground is covered in light enough particles, such as dust or sand, they are drawn into the whirlwind, making it visible before settling elsewhere as the demon loses strength.

Unlike terrestrial tornadoes, which can only grow as large as the clouds that cover them, there are no restrictions on the height of a dust tornado on Mars.. However, in general, Martian dust tornadoes are weaker and shorter than their Earth counterparts, so the recently filmed tornado is an exception to this rule.

Researchers are still not sure why this particular dust tornado was so tall, but this phenomenon provides valuable information about the Martian atmosphere and atmospheric processes on the red planet.

According to a study published in the journal Icarus in 2018, sIt is estimated that on an average day there could be at least one “dust devil” per square kilometer on Mars, which is equivalent to about 145 million a day.. This suggests that dust devils are probably the main transporters of dust through the Martian atmosphere, playing a crucial role in dust dynamics on the red planet.

Edited by Felipe Espinosa Wang.