'White snake' seen on Mars

Maggie McKee, space news editor

(Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona)

Is someone sending smoke signals from Mars? Sadly, no - but NASA's eagle-eyed Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has spotted a "dust devil" rising nearly a kilometre above the Red Planet's surface.

Dust devils are created when vortices of air - set in motion when warm air rises from the surface on an otherwise still day - pick up dust from the ground. The dust reaches such great heights because of Mars's relatively low gravity.

The devils were first seen on the Red Planet by NASA's Pathfinder rover in 1997 and are thought to be responsible for cleaning dust off the solar panels of the agency's Spirit and Opportunity rovers.

This dust devil was snapped on 16 February in an area in Mars's northern hemisphere known as Amazonis Planitia. Its sinuous shape comes from "a westerly breeze partway up the height of the dust devil", NASA says.

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/1d44dfd0/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Cshortsharpscience0C20A120C0A30Cwhite0Esnake0Eseen0Eon0Emars0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

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