Dust Devil in Gusev Crater on Mars
Date: 27 May 2005
Satellite: Spirit rover
Depicts: Dust devil on Mars
Copyright: NASA/JPL
A dust devil spins across the surface of Gusev Crater just before noon on Mars, on 15 May 2005. NASA's Spirit rover took the series of images in this 21-frame animation with its navigation camera on the rover's martian day, or sol, 486.
The event occurred during a period of 9 minutes and 35 seconds beginning at 11:48 a.m. local Mars time. The dust devil moved in a northeasterly direction, about 1.0 kilometre away from Spirit's perch on the slopes of the 'Columbia Hills'. The whirlwind was traveling at about 4.8 metres per second and covered a distance of about 1.6 kilometres.
Contrast has been enhanced for anything in the images that changes from frame to frame, that is, for the dust devil. The dust devil is about 34 metres in diameter.
Last Update: 1 September 2019
