The European Space Agency (ESA) has captured remarkable new images of dozens of giant dust devils swirling across an ancient canyon system on Mars.
The images show more than 30 active whirlwinds moving through Mamers Valles, a vast network of valleys and canyons that formed billions of years ago.
Dust devils on Mars are similar to those seen in dry, dusty regions on Earth.
They form when sunlight heats the Martian surface, causing the air just above the ground to rise and spin.
As the air spirals upward, it picks up dust and creates towering columns that resemble miniature tornadoes.
However, there is nothing miniature about Mars’s dust devils.
These spinning storms can grow up to 8 kilometers (5 miles) high, travel across the surface for many kilometers, and reach speeds of up to 45 meters per second, or about 160 kilometers per hour.
They play an important role in moving dust around the planet and helping shape Mars’s atmosphere.
The new images were taken by ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft, which has been orbiting and studying Mars since 2003. The spacecraft carries a High Resolution Stereo Camera that is specially designed to capture detailed images of the planet’s surface.
Unlike an ordinary camera, this instrument creates a single image by combining pictures from up to nine separate camera channels.
Each channel looks at Mars from a slightly different angle or in different colors. If the landscape remains still during imaging, the pictures line up perfectly. But if something moves between shots, such as a dust devil, it stands out clearly.
In these new images, the dust devils appear as small bright dots with faint trailing shadows. By comparing the different camera views, scientists can also determine the direction and speed of these spinning storms.
Previous studies using data from Mars Express and ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter have tracked more than 1,000 dust devils, helping scientists better understand how winds move around the Red Planet.
The dust devils were spotted in Mamers Valles, an enormous system of valleys and canyons that stretches for about 1,000 kilometers across Mars. Some of the valleys are up to 25 kilometers wide and 1.2 kilometers deep. The region crosses from the planet’s ancient southern highlands into its northern lowlands.
The landscape is filled with dramatic features, including steep-sided flat hills called mesas, towering cliffs and debris-covered glaciers. These glaciers contain water ice hidden beneath layers of dust and rock.
Although water ice cannot survive for long on Mars’s surface today, the protective rocky cover has helped preserve it.
Many features in Mamers Valles suggest that water, lava and ice once flowed through the region. Scientists believe glaciers slowly moved down the valley walls and eventually met in the middle, leaving behind ridges and patterns that can still be seen today.
The region formed about 3.8 billion years ago during the late Noachian period, a time when Mars was changing from a warmer, wetter and more geologically active world into the cold, dry planet we see today.
Thanks to Mars Express, scientists are continuing to uncover clues about this fascinating chapter in Mars’s history.
