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Dust devils on Mars captured on video

Posted at 10:12 AM, Mar 02, 2017
and last updated 2017-03-02 10:12:32-05

NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover recently spotted dust devils spinning across the surface of the Red Planet.

These look like tiny tornadoes even though they form in different ways.

Tornadoes form from large-scale weather systems, and a rotating cloud drops from the sky.

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Dust devils, or whirlwinds, form when the sun heats the surface and the warmer air begins to rise and spin in the wind.

The Curiosity Mars Rover recently spotted these meteorological events while it was studying active, shifting sand dunes.

The atmosphere on Mars is very thin — much thinner than Earth's — but wind still plays a big factor in shaping the planet's surface.

For more about weather on other planets, watch the video below:

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