# Martian Dust Devil Trails

- By: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
- Date: Taken on 24 August 2009
- Classification: Photograph
- Credit line: http://www.uahirise.org/ESP_014426_2070
- Museum: [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Martian_Dust_Devil_Trails.jpg)
- Rights: Public domain
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/commons/thumb/e/ea/Martian_Dust_Devil_Trails.jpg/1920px-Martian_Dust_Devil_Trails.jpg
- Who can see it: Teens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

This portion of a recent high-resolution picture from the HiRISE camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter 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 vortices 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 desert areas on planet Earth. 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 Mars, dust devils can be up to 8 kilometres high. Dust devils have been credited with unexpected cleanings of Mars rover solar panels.