Explanation: Who's been marking up Mars? This portion of a recent high-resolution picture from the HiRISE camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows twisting dark trails criss-crossing light colored terrain on the martian surface. Newly formed trails like these had presented researchers with a tantalizing martian mystery but are now known to be the work of miniature wind vortices known to occur on the red planet - martian dust devils. Such spinning columns of rising air heated by the warm surface are also common in dry and desert areas on planet Earth. Typically lasting only a few minutes, dust devils becoming visible as they pick up loose red-colored dust leaving the darker and heavier sand beneath intact. On Mars, dust devils can be up to 8 kilometers high. Dust devils have been credited with unexpected cleanings of mars rover solar panels.

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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

Publikacii s klyuchevymi slovami: Mars - Mars - pyl' Publikacii so slovami: Mars - Mars - pyl'
Sm. takzhe: Ledyanye oblaka nad Krasnoi planetoi Dolina Marinera: Bol'shoi kan'on na Marse Temnyi Morskoi konek v Cefee Mars: sputnik, kratery i vulkany Dvizhenie Marsa Leopardovye pyatna na marsianskih kamnyah Ten' marsianskogo robota Vse publikacii na tu zhe temu >>