Sentences with phrase «dust devils»

Essentially, we cover a 5 - metre aluminium pipe with double sided sticky tape and run into an active dust devil.

The two images of the same dust devil show that it was moving at an average speed of 3 metres per second.

Furthermore, a separate dust devil has apparently swept the rover clean.

Imagine a swirling dust devil cutting across the desert's floor.

The data also show that there are more dust devils in the martian summer, and they're much bigger than the ones occurring in the winter.

It turns out there may be up to 300 times more dust devils on Mars than scientists previously predicted, which explains why there's so much dust in Mars's atmosphere.

Independent analysis of dust devils by graduate student Jenny Fisher of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena shows that some vortices span hundreds of meters and tower 8.5 kilometers — probably tall enough to suspend dust at high altitudes.

Martian dust devils unfold on a whole different scale.

Such rotation may be the driving force behind small tornadoes and waterspouts seen near plumes, which would form in the same way as dust devils around a thunderstorm.

Although there aren't yet anemometers on the Martian surface to measure wind speed, the camera captured huge dust devils — much like our tornadoes — and provided evidence that the sand dunes on Mars are still being shaped by winds.

The Viking orbiters saw dust devils in the mid-1970s, but researchers weren't sure how much dust they threw into the atmosphere.

Now, a study of terrestrial dust devils has shown that around two thirds of the fine particles lifted by these vortices can remain suspended in the atmosphere and be transported around the globe.

Researchers need much more data on how dust devils form and behave in order to construct a meaningful model of Martian climate.

NASA's Mars Opportunity rover has captured a rare image of a Martian dust devil traveling across the surface of the Red Planet.

It snapped pictures of a «Swiss - cheese - like» south pole, and it watched dust devils leaving tracks in the Martian surface.

But dust devils occur only in the midday sunlight, he notes, so it may have simply been a strong breeze that cleaned the rover.

These electric field measurements suggest that dust devils carry a positive charge created by larger particles rubbing together at the base and a negative charge created by smaller particles at the top.

The videos show dust devils are smaller and significantly more frequent than predicted by tracks on the orbiter images.

Entertainment: Language of Flowers -LCB- audio book -RCB-, Kitchen House -LCB- audio book -RCB-, dodging dust devils, and hunting for parking spots that don't require us to show off how talented we are at backing up a truck and trailer.

The average dust devil, which lasts for a few hours at most during the hottest part of the Martian day, is slow - moving but may carry several tons of dust within its height of 1.2 miles (two kilometers).

But friendly dust devils have been a huge help to keeping rovers» panels clean.

Dust devils arise in the martian spring and summer when sunlight heats the ground, forcing warm cells of air to rise.

Although some scientists thought dust devils might trigger the occasional dust storms that can shroud the entire planet, Cantor's analysis revealed no correlation.

This wind shear is capable of producing small tornadoes or dust devils which can also dart around erratically, damage or destroy houses and buildings, and quickly spread the fire to areas outside the central area of the fire.

Dust devils greet Mars lander; Carbon nanotubes measure spiciness; Autism linked to schizophrenia... and more

Back in the lab, the glass slides are analysed under an optical microscope and all grains measured and counted to gain detailed relative grain size distributions of the sampled dust devils.

About half of the dust lifted into the martian atmosphere each year is thought to come from dust devils.

Martin describes this particular dust devil in coded terminology as a «tiny faint short.»

I get to ride in the passenger seat as Metzger tilts at a few dust devils.

A day when nothing happens, they assure me, is as important as a day of frantic activity: Since no one knows precisely why dust devils form where and when they do, being able to say for sure what does not cause them would represent progress of a kind.

Deserts are expected to become drier and windier, and stronger and bigger dust devils (such as the Chilean gravel devils) may form.

At the northern edge of the study site, José Verdasca and Eduardo Sebastián Martínez of the Centro de Astrobiología, a public research laboratory in Madrid, are testing dust devil detection equipment they have designed to fly on NASA's next Mars mission — a car - size ranging rover called Curiosity, to be launched in fall 2011.

Dust devils dominate the weather patterns on the Red Planet, sculpting its surface and potentially threatening future robotic explorers or visiting astronauts.

This means only larger dust devils — whirling monsters as many as 9 kilometers high — suck up enough dust to expose the dark dirt layer underneath and leave tracks.

So dust devils are an important component in climate models for Mars.

«This study is very important because [dust devils] are a big source of dust in the atmosphere on Mars,» but the methods of counting them are «primitive,» says Jeffery Hollingsworth, a research scientist who models the martin climate at the NASA Ames Research Center Planetary Systems Branch in Moffett Field, California.

The theory Anderson and Day tested via computer simulations involves counter-rotating vortices — picture in your mind horizontal dust devils — spiraling around the crater to dig up sediment that had filled the crater in a warmer era, when water flowed on Mars.

(Copyright 1998 by Calvin J. Hamilton) The Serpent Dust Devil of Mars A towering dust devil, casts a serpentine shadow over the Martian surface in this image acquired by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Devil of a Storm Dust devils are common in hot deserts.

SPOKANE, Wash. — This time of year, dust devils put on a good show in the flatter, drier parts of the Pacific Northwest.

Footage of an amazing and equally terrifying dust devil is making rounds on the internet.

Alÿs, camera in hand, chases and runs into dust devils in the Mexican highlands, which is good because it's cool seeing a guy run into a tornado.

Then other people pick up his stuff and he writes about that and someone else writes about that until it's all swirling around like a digital dust devil in a Michael Crichton novel.