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Spirit made a "psychedelic" photos of tornadoes on Mars.. / July 20, 2009 /

The U.S. space agency released photos of unusual Martian dust tornado. This was reported on the official website of the agency.

To create a photo professionals use several photos storm made apparatus Spirit with intervals of several seconds. Photographs were obtained 27 May 2009. Images processed by different filters and combined into one. The result is a rather psychedelic painting, which shows the momentum tornado.

Tornadoes on Mars formed when the sun heats the surface of the planet. As a result, the warm Martian «air» rises, zakruchivayas in the funnel. Since 2004, Spirit apparatus was recorded about 650 of these tornadoes.

Mission Mars Exploration Rover, in which the Red Planet has gone a couple of identical Mars Spirit and Opportunity, launched in 2004. The purpose of the expedition is to study the geological and mineralogical composition of Martian soil and search for signs of water. Originally planned that the elaborate apparatus of 90 days, but they continue to operate until now.

Currently Shoot Spirit is facing serious difficulties: it is dense in the ovary Martian sand. Engineers of the American space agency is now intensively working on a plan to rescue the unit. To do this in the lab, they artificially «buried» Earth’s copy of Mars in the sand and try different options out of the current situation. Currently, engineers are testing the possibility of the release of Spirit, forcing Mars retrograde.

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