File:Martian Dust Devil Trails.jpg

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	Date/Time	Thumbnail	Dimensions	User	Comment
current	17:17, 5 January 2017		2,560 × 1,920 (5.59 MB)	127.0.0.1 (talk)	This portion of a recent high-resolution picture from the HiRISE camera on board the <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mars_Reconnaissance_Orbiter" title="Category:Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter">Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter</a> shows twisting dark trails criss-crossing light coloured terrain on the Martian surface. Newly formed trails like these had presented researchers with a tantalizing Martian mystery but are now known to be the work of miniature wind <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vortex" class="extiw" title="en:Vortex">vortices</a> known to occur on the red planet - Martian dust devils. Such spinning columns of rising air heated by the warm surface are also common in dry and <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Deserts" title="Category:Deserts">desert</a> areas on planet <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Earth" title="Earth">Earth</a>. Typically lasting only a few minutes, dust devils becoming visible as they pick up loose red-coloured dust leaving the darker and heavier sand beneath intact. On <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mars" title="Mars">Mars</a>, dust devils can be up to 8 kilometres high. Dust devils have been credited with unexpected cleanings of Mars rover <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:solar_panels_on_spacecraft" class="extiw" title="w:en:solar panels on spacecraft">solar panels</a>.

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