Watch NASA probe 'capture' Martian sandstorm

The US Space Agency (NASA) has just released a video showing the Perseverance rover recording a moving sandstorm on the Red Planet .

The footage of the amazing phenomenon was recorded on August 30, 2023, the 899th day of Perseverance's Mars mission. The tornado appeared about 4km away from the spacecraft. It moved from east to west at a speed of about 20km/h, with an estimated width of 60 meters.

'We can't see the top of the dust devil, but its shadow gives a clear indication of its height,' said Mark Lemmon, an expert at the Space Science Institute in Boulder. The vertical shadow suggests it is about 2km tall, he said.

Martian dust devils form when rising warm air mixes with columns of descending cool air. They are most common during Mars' spring and summer months.

However, their appearance at a particular location is unpredictable. The Perseverance and its companion Curiosity must constantly monitor their surroundings, taking black and white images to transmit data back to Earth.

Dust storms are most common during the Martian spring and summer months.

Perseverance's mission is not only to capture the fascinating phenomena on Mars. It also aims to probe deeper into the biological world on the planet, search for signs of ancient microbial life, study the planet's past geology and climate, and pave the way for future human exploration of Mars.

Notably, Perseverance's first mission is to collect and store rocks and weatherings on Mars for analysis.

Subsequent NASA missions, in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA), will collect and return these samples to Earth.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, managed by Caltech in California, is the facility that oversees the operations of the Perseverance rover.