Perseverance captured video of a Martian dust vortex about 2 km high and 60 m wide that was moving at 19 km/h

The Perseverance rover was able to capture on video the movement of a giant dust vortex. The video was recorded on 30 August 2023, but NASA published it a month later.

Here's What We Know

The Mars rover was only able to video only the lower part of the tornado from a distance of 4 kilometres. Such materials are very important, as they allow modelling of weather phenomena on the Red Planet. Scientists believe that the vortices are responsible for the distribution of dust on the surface of Mars.

The video you can see below has been sped up 20 times. It was able to recreate it based on 21 frames that were taken at 4-second intervals.

The height of the vortex was 2 kilometres. It was possible to determine this from the shadow that the top casts, even though we can't see it. In addition, the Martian tornado was 60 metres wide and travelled at a speed of 19 km/h.

Perseverance shot the video in the west of Jezero Crater. It was once the mouth of a river that flowed into the lake. Scientists believe the sedimentary rocks may contain information about former life on the Red Planet. The rover is collecting samples and NASA plans to deliver them to Earth by the end of this decade.

Source: NASA