NASA Perseverance Rover was able to capture some dust devils and whirlwinds in the Red Planet. The space vehicle took photos of these Mars weather phenomena on July 20, 2021.
(Photo : Photo illustration by NASA via Getty Images)
In this concept illustration provided by NASA, NASA's Perseverance (Mars 2020) rover uses its drill to core a rock sample and will store them in sealed tubes on the planet's surface for future missions to retrieve in the area known as Jezero crater on the planet Mars. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology.tion of the Red Planet.
It was also the 148th Martian day of the Perseverance Rover when NASA spotted the air vortexes. The international space union's Mars rover specifically captured three images, with 15 seconds intervals each.
"Perseverance Mars rover used one of its navigation cameras to capture these dust devils swirling across Jezero Crater," said NASA via its official Jet Propulsion Laboratory post.
NASA Perseverance Rover Captures Mars Whirlwinds, Dust Devils
According to Interesting Engineering's latest report, the dust devils and whirlwinds were identified after enhancing the captured images.
(Photo : Photo by NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Cornell University via Getty Images)
In this handout released by NASA, a Mars landscape is seen in a picture taken by the panoramic camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit January 8, 2003. The circular topographic feature, dubbed Sleepy Hollow, can be seen along with dark markings that could have bee caused by the airbag-encased lander as it bounced and rolled to rest. The rover landed on Mars January 3.
This allowed NASA to maximize its details via color distortion. However, instead of having still images, the international space agency generated GIFs (graphics interchange format).
Aside from showing the dust devils and whirlwinds, the new GIFs also reveal the Red Planet's surface in HD. When it comes to life on Mars, NASA didn't confirm if the air vortexes could hint at the presence of living organisms on Mars.
These weather phenomena can actually happen in non-habitable places, such as deserts, since instabilities and turbulence wind current gradients form them.
This means that the harsher the environment is, the more whirlwinds, dust devils, and other weather activities are expected to take place. You can visit this link to see the actual GIFs generated by NASA.
Other Activities of Perseverance Rover
Aside from capturing photos, the NASA Perseverance Rover is also being enhanced to target space rocks on the Red Planet.
Recently, the vehicle was able to zap two rocks, thanks to its SuperCam instrument.
NASA said that if the Mars rover can continuously pick its own targets, it can easily shoot them easily while it's operating.
Meanwhile, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is about to release its first HD images of the universe.
On the other hand, the NASA Mars Orbiter is still suffering from a serious system glitch.
For more news updates about NASA Perseverance Rover and its upcoming discoveries, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.
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Written by: Griffin Davis
