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By European Space Agency
Image: The Ocean and Land Colour Instrument on Copernicus Sentinel-3 captured this image of Earth’s biggest iceberg, A23a, on 5 April 2025. View the full article
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By NASA
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
A Martian dust devil can be seen consuming its smaller friend in this short video made of images taken at the rim of Jezero Crater by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover on Jan. 25, 2025. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI The six-wheeled explorer recently captured several Red Planet mini-twisters spinning on the rim of Jezero Crater.
A Martian dust devil can be seen consuming a smaller one in this short video made of images taken by a navigation camera aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. These swirling, sometimes towering columns of air and dust are common on Mars. The smaller dust devil’s demise was captured during an imaging experiment conducted by Perseverance’s science team to better understand the forces at play in the Martian atmosphere.
When the rover snapped these images from about 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) away, the larger dust devil was approximately 210 feet (65 meters) wide, while the smaller, trailing dust devil was roughly 16 feet (5 meters) wide. Two other dust devils can also be seen in the background at left and center. Perseverance recorded the scene Jan. 25 as it explored the western rim of Mars’ Jezero Crater at a location called “Witch Hazel Hill.”
“Convective vortices — aka dust devils — can be rather fiendish,” said Mark Lemmon, a Perseverance scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado. “These mini-twisters wander the surface of Mars, picking up dust as they go and lowering the visibility in their immediate area. If two dust devils happen upon each other, they can either obliterate one another or merge, with the stronger one consuming the weaker.”
While exploring the rim of Jezero Crater on Mars, NASA’s Perseverance rover captured new images of multiple dust devils in January 2025. These captivating phenomena have been documented for decades by the agency’s Red Planet robotic explorers. NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/CNRS/INTA-CSIC/Space Science Institute/ISAE-Supaero/University of Arizona Science of Whirlwinds
Dust devils are formed by rising and rotating columns of warm air. Air near the planet’s surface becomes heated by contact with the warmer ground and rises through the denser, cooler air above. As other air moves along the surface to take the place of the rising warmer air, it begins to rotate. When the incoming air rises into the column, it picks up speed like a spinning ice skater bringing their arms closer to their body. The air rushing in also picks up dust, and a dust devil is born.
“Dust devils play a significant role in Martian weather patterns,” said Katie Stack Morgan, project scientist for the Perseverance rover at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Dust devil study is important because these phenomena indicate atmospheric conditions, such as prevailing wind directions and speed, and are responsible for about half the dust in the Martian atmosphere.”
NASA’s Viking 1 orbiter captured this Martian dust devil casting a shadow on Aug. 1, 1978. During the 15-second interval between the two images, the dust devil moved toward the northeast (toward the upper right) at a rate of about 59 feet (18 meters) per second. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Since landing in 2021, Perseverance has imaged whirlwinds on many occasions, including one on Sept. 27, 2021, where a swarm of dust devils danced across the floor of Jezero Crater and the rover used its SuperCam microphone to record the first sounds of a Martian dust devil.
NASA’s Viking orbiters, in the 1970s, were the first spacecraft to photograph Martian dust devils. Two decades later, the agency’s Pathfinder mission was the first to image one from the surface and even detected a dust devil passing over the lander. Twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity managed to capture their fair share of dusty whirlwinds. Curiosity, which is exploring a location called Mount Sharp in Gale Crater on the opposite side of the Red Planet as Perseverance, sees them as well.
Capturing a dust devil image or video with a spacecraft takes some luck. Scientists can’t predict when they’ll appear, so Perseverance routinely monitors in all directions for them. When scientists see them occur more frequently at a specific time of day or approach from a certain direction, they use that information to focus their monitoring to try to catch additional whirlwinds.
“If you feel bad for the little devil in our latest video, it may give you some solace to know the larger perpetrator most likely met its own end a few minutes later,” said Lemmon. “Dust devils on Mars only last about 10 minutes.”
More About Perseverance
A key objective of Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including caching samples that may contain signs of ancient microbial life. The rover is characterizing the planet’s geology and past climate, to help pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet and as the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith.
NASA’s Mars Sample Return Program, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), is designed to send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program (MEP) portfolio and the agency’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for the agency by Caltech, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.
For more about Perseverance:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-2020-perseverance
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DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-9011
agle@jpl.nasa.gov
Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Apr 03, 2025 Related Terms
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By NASA
NASA’s Electrodynamic Dust Shield (EDS) successfully demonstrated its ability to remove regolith, or lunar dust and dirt, from its various surfaces on the Moon during Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1, which concluded on March 16. Lunar dust is extremely abrasive and electrostatic, which means it clings to anything that carries a charge. It can damage everything from spacesuits and hardware to human lungs, making lunar dust one of the most challenging features of living and working on the lunar surface. The EDS technology uses electrodynamic forces to lift and remove the lunar dust from its surfaces. The first image showcases the glass and thermal radiator surfaces, coated in a layer of regolith. As you slide to the left, the photo reveals the results after EDS activation. Dust was removed from both surfaces, proving the technology’s effectiveness in mitigating dust accumulation.
This milestone marks a significant step toward sustaining long-term lunar and interplanetary operations by reducing dust-related hazards to a variety of surfaces for space applications ranging from thermal radiators, solar panels, and camera lenses to spacesuits, boots, and helmet visors. The EDS technology is paving the way for future dust mitigation solutions, supporting NASA’s Artemis campaign and beyond. NASA’s Electrodynamic Dust Shield was developed at Kennedy Space Center in Florida with funding from NASA’s Game Changing Development Program, managed by the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.
Image Credit: NASA
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By European Space Agency
On 13 and 14 February 2025, the European Space Agency (ESA) celebrated 20 years of supporting space innovation through its ESA Business Incubation Centres (BIC) network. The event in Munich, Germany, brought together entrepreneurs, successful space companies, experts and policymakers.
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By NASA
2 min read
Newly Minted Ph.D. Studies Phytoplankton with NASA’s FjordPhyto Project
Adventurous travellers aboard the Viking Octantis ship, sampling phytoplankton from Danco Island in the Errera Channel for the FjordPhyto project. Allison Cusick FjordPhyto is a collective effort where travelers on tour expedition vessels in Antarctica help scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Universidad Nacional de La Plata study phytoplankton. Now project leader Dr. Allison Cusick has a Ph.D.! . Dr. Cusick studies how melting glaciers influence phytoplankton in the coastal regions. She wrote her doctoral dissertation based on the data collected by FjordPhyto volunteers.
“Travelers adventure to the wild maritime climate of Antarctica and help collect samples from one of the most data-limited regions of the world,” said Cusick. “While on vacation, they can volunteer to join a FjordPhyto science boat experience where they spend an hour collecting water measurements like salinity, temperature, chlorophyll-a, turbidity, as well as physical samples for molecular genetics work, microscopy identification, and carbon biomass estimates. It’s a full immersion into the ecosystem and the importance of polar research!”
Cusick successfully defended her thesis on December 18, 2024, earning a Ph.D. in Oceanography from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Hers is the second Ph.D. based on data from the FjordPhyto project. Martina Mascioni from FjordPhyto team earned her Ph.D. from the National University of La Plata (Argentina) in 2018.
The project is a hit with travelers, too.
“It’s incredibly inspiring to be part of a program like this that’s open to non-specialist involvement,” said one volunteer, a retired biology teacher aboard the Viking Octantis ship, who continued to say, “Thank you for letting us be a part of the science and explaining so clearly why it matters to the bigger picture.”
If you would like to get involved, go to www.fjordphyto.org and reach out to the team!
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Last Updated Feb 10, 2025 Related Terms
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