Mars Rover Spies "Dust Devils"

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has photographed several "dust devils" coursing across that planet's ruddy surface, reports say.

For example, see this article in USA Today.

Events on other planets have a certain static quality to them, since they are captured so infrequently and seem to be relics of the past. Exceptions are such things as the Moon's phases and, particularly, the impact of Comet Shoemaker-Levy on Jupiter. Another example is the recent brilliant run-in between a NASA impactor and Comet Tempel 1.

Seeing things like whirlwinds on another planet reminds us that the ways of other worlds aren't always as strange as they seem, and that in a geologic sense, life goes on in the Solar System regardless of whether humans see them.

Pictures like the ones taken by NASA's Rover at Gusev Crater remind us of our place on Earth, and are uplifting and humbling at the same time. Not bad for a probe named "Spirit".