Dust Devil Tracks
Many areas on Mars experience the passage of giant dust devils. A thin coating of fine bright dust covers most of the martain surface. When a dust devil goes by it blows away the coating and exposes the underlying dark surface. Dust devils have been seen from the ground and high overhead from orbit. They have even blown the dust off of the solar panels of the two Rovers on Mars, thereby greatly extending their lives. The twin Rovers were designed to last for 3 months, instead they have lasted more than five years and are still going. The pattern of the tracks have been shown to change every few months. The image below of Russel Crater shows changes in dust devil tracks over a period of only three months, as documented by HiRISE.
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Quadrangle map of Noachis labeled with major features. Russell Crater is near the bottom left.
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Russell Crater Dust Devil Changes, as seen by HiRISE. Click on imnage to see changes in dust devil tracks in just 3 months.
Read more about this topic: Russell (Martian Crater)
Famous quotes containing the words dust, devil and/or tracks:
“The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“In all systems of theology the devil figures as a male person.... Yes, it is women who keep the church going.”
—Don Marquis (1878–1937)
“Leonid Ivanovich Shigaev is dead.... The suspension dots, customary in Russian obituaries, must represent the footprints of words that have departed on tiptoe, in reverent single file, leaving their tracks on the marble....”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)