PIA07253: Wind-Driven Traveler on Mars (Spirit Sol 486)


Wind-Driven Traveler on Mars (Spirit Sol 486)

Caption:

A dust devil spins across the surface of Gusev Crater just before noon on Mars. NASA's Spirit rover took the series of images in this spectacular 21-frame animation with its navigation camera on the rover's martian day, or sol, 486 (March 15, 2005).

The event occurred during a period of 9 minutes and 35 seconds beginning at 11:48 a.m. local Mars time, recording the dust devil's progress in a northeasterly direction about 1.0 kilometer (0.62 mile) away from Spirit's perch on the slopes of the "Columbia Hills." The whirlwind was traveling at about 4.8 meters per second (16 feet per second) and covered a distance of about 1.6 kilometers (1 mile).

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 meters (112 feet) in diameter.

Cataloging Keywords:

Name Value Additional Values
Target Mars
System
Target Type Planet
Mission Mars Exploration Rover (MER)
Instrument Host Spirit (MER-A)
Host Type Rover
Instrument Navigation Camera (Navcam)
Detector
Extra Keywords Crater, Dust, Grayscale, Movie, Rotation
Acquisition Date
Release Date 2005-05-31
Date in Caption 2005-03-15
Image Credit NASA/JPL
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07253
Identifier PIA07253