NASA’s Mars Rover Captures a Giant Dust Devil Swallowing Its Friend

Mars is a devil eat devil world. The Perseverance rover recently witnessed a gruesome scene on the Red Planet, in which a dust devil consumed its smaller counterpart, morphing into one, slightly larger, swirling column of air and dust. NASA’s six-wheeled robot was carrying out an imaging experiment to better understand the Martian atmosphere when it captured the two dust devils at play. Using its navigation camera, the Perseverance rover snapped images of several dust devils spinning erratically on the western rim of Mars’ Jezero Crater, in an area called Witch Hazel Hill. The images were stitched into a short video that reveals the larger dust devil, which was approximately 210 feet (65 meters) wide, and a smaller dust devil, roughly 16 feet (5 meters) wide, trailing behind. Two more dust devils can be seen swirling in the background. The tiny, unassuming twister walked straight into its own demise, and was swallowed up by its larger counterpart. “Convective vortices—aka dust devil ... Read full article.