NASA's Perseverance Captured Dust Devils Swirling on Mars

The Mars rover shared GIFs of it going through the crater.

NASA Perseverance dust devil image
NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Signs of the Martian wind have already cropped up among the many glimpses of Mars returned by Perseverance since it landed in February. Recently, NASA shared audio from the rover that gave a snippet of the planet's wind. On Tuesday, NASA and the car-sized rover in the Jezero Crater shared a look at what the wind can do. 

NASA shared a pair of GIFs on social media, providing a rover's eye view of a dust devil storming across the crater where Perseverance lives. It posted two views of the distant dust devil. One is a wide-angle shot giving a panoramic view of the rocky crater. The other GIF zooms in on the whirlwind.

"Spotted a dust devil. You can see it in the distance behind my robotic arm in this enhanced/processed view," NASA wrote on the Perseverance Twitter account. "The dust devil is moving right to left and creating whirlwinds of dust in its path."

Dust devils have been seen on Mars previously. Just recently, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shared images of a massive dust devil seen from orbit, and had shared images of them prior to that sighting as well. Curiosity has also seen the wind in action like this, as has Spirit.

What Perseverance has already sent to Earth is exciting. Its mission, however, is only just beginning. In the coming weeks, it'll be part of many more thrilling firsts in space exploration. That includes the flight of Ingenuity, a small helicopter that came along with Perseverance. That historic flight could take place as soon as early April.

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Dustin Nelson is a Senior Staff Writer at Thrillist. Follow Dustin Nelson on Twitter.