NASA rover films 1-mile-high twister spinning on Mars

INA -SOURCES

Searching for the potential of past life on Mars, the car-sized NASA Perseverance rover spotted a towering Martian whirlwind.

Reaching around 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) high, the lower portion of this swirling vortex is visible in the footage below. Dust devils frequently spin across the Martian desert, though this robust dust devil is some 200 feet across.

The vortex traveled at 12 mph, but is sped up in this 21-frame video. You can see it coming down the hill at the top of the shot.

The Perseverance rover is exploring the Jezero Crater on Mars, the site of a once roaring river delta that teemed with water. It's a bone dry world now 1,000 times drier than Earth's driest desert — with no shortage of red dust for circulating air to drive up into the atmosphere.