Mars rover witnessed a larger dust devil swallowing a smaller one

NASA's Perseverance rover recorded a rare event on Mars: a large dust devil consuming a smaller one. The event was filmed on January 25, during the rover's 1,399th Martian day. The larger dust devil was approximately 210 feet wide. The dust devils are formed by rising warm air. The encounter shows that the stronger vortex merged with or obliterated the weaker one. Dust devils are responsible for about half of the dust in the Martian atmosphere. This is not the first time that the rover has studied these atmospheric phenomena. The Perseverance rover previously recorded the first audio of a dust devil in 2021. The Viking orbiters captured images of dust devils from space in the 1970s.