Day: October 1, 2023

NASA Mars rover spies 200-foot-wide dust devil moving across red planet's surface

A new compilation of images from NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover appears to show a dust devil twister dancing across the surface of the red planet, about 2.5 miles away from the six-wheeled geologist.

NASA said only the lower portion of the twister was seen moving along the western rim of Mars’ Jezero Crater, on Aug. 30, 2023.

The images were snapped on Perseverance’s 899th day on Martian soil.

NASA’S PERSEVERANCE MARS ROVER CAPTURES IMAGES OF WHAT MAY HAVE BEEN A WILD RIVER

The 21 pictures snapped four seconds apart by one of the rover’s Navcams, were put together and sped up by about 20 times to show the motion of the dust devil.

On Mars, dust devils are weaker and smaller than tornadoes on Earth, NASA said, but they are one of the ways dust on the planet is moved and redistributed.

The phenomena are often studied by scientists to understand the atmosphere of Mars while also helping to improve current weather models.

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Based on the images, NASA said, mission scientists believe the dust devil was about 2.5 miles away on the “Thorofare Ridge,” moving east to west about 12 mph.

The width was calculated to be nearly 200 feet wide, and although the bottom 387 feet of the twister was captured, scientists estimate it to be over a mile high.

“We don’t see the top of the dust devil, but the shadow it throws gives us a good indication of its height,” Mark Lemmon, a planetary scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and a member of the Perseverance science team said. “Most are vertical columns. If this dust devil were configured that way, its shadow would indicate it is about 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) in height.”

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On Earth, dust devils form when rising warm air mixes with descending columns of cooler air.

NASA also said Martian versions of dust devils can grow to be much larger than the dust devils found on Earth.

Scientists are still working to get a better understanding of when dust devils will appear in a specific location.

The rover has been exploring the Jezero Crater since landing there over two years ago, with hopes of eventually seeking out signs of ancient microbial life.

Bill Cosby sued for sexual assault, false imprisonment in new complaint

Bill Cosby was accused of sexual battery and false imprisonment in a new civil complaint filed in Los Angeles.

The disgraced comedian, 86, allegedly “drugged and raped” accuser Donna Motsinger in 1972 while she was working as a server at The Trident, a popular restaurant in Sausalito, Calif.

Motsinger also filed the complaint against Cosby’s production company, Jemmin, Inc., as well as the Circle Star Theater, for “failing to ensure the safety of its guests at the hands of its performers,” in documents obtained by Fox News Digital.

“Jemmin, Inc. is vicariously liable for Mr. Cosby’s sexual battery as Jemmin, Inc. authorized and ratified the sexual battery through Mr. Cosby himself,” documents stated. In addition, Motsinger’s suit said “Jemmin, Inc. is guilty of fraud, oppression, and malice for the sexual battery of Ms. Motsinger at the hands of Cosby.”

BILL COSBY HIT WITH NEW ACCUSATION OF SEXUAL ASSAULT BY FORMER INTERN FOR HIS SITCOM

Cosby’s representatives did not have a comment to provide Fox News Digital.

Motsinger said Cosby, a regular at The Trident, “followed her” home one night and asked her to go to one of his shows at the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos, Calif. He picked her up in a limousine, and gave her a “glass of wine in the limo along the way,” docs stated.

Cosby was allegedly filming his comedy stand-up act for “Inside the Mind of Bill Cosby,” the complaint said.

She claimed that Cosby took her to the dressing room, where “she began to feel sick and Mr. Cosby gave her what she believed was an aspirin.”

“Next thing she knew, she was going in and out of consciousness while two men attending to Mr. Cosby were putting her in the limousine with Mr. Cosby,” the complaint stated. “In the limousine, Mr. Cosby sat near the window and put his arms around her. The last thing Ms. Motsinger recalls were flashes of light.”

BILL COSBY FACES NEW LAWSUIT FROM FORMER PLAYBOY MODEL

Motsinger claimed she “woke up in her house with all her clothes off, except her underwear on – no top, no bra, and no pants. She knew she had been drugged and raped by Bill Cosby.”

She said that due to the sexual battery, she “suffered economic and noneconomic damages to the maximum extent allowed by law, including but not limited to the lost wages, medical bills, pain and suffering, emotional distress, and any other remedy available at law.”

Motsinger also waged allegations against the Circle Star Theater, who “chose not to intervene” when she claimed to be unconscious.

“At the theater, Ms. Motsinger was so drugged and sedated that she was going in and out of consciousness by the time she left in Mr. Cosby’s limousine,” documents stated. “Employees and agents of Circle Star Theater knew or should have known of the dangerous drugged and sedated state that Ms. Motsinger was in and should have rendered care and aid to Ms. Motsinger.”

She seeks unspecified damages economic, non-economic and punitive damages.

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Motsinger was one of the 12 anonymous “Jane Does” who testified in a 2005 civil rape case filed against Cosby by former Temple University athletics director Andrea Constand. The case was osettledut of court one year later. 

Cosby was released from prison in 2021 after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court vacated his 2018 criminal conviction for sexual assault.

The disgraced actor, once known as “America’s Dad,” served more than two years of his three-to-10-year sentence after he was convicted of drugging and molesting a woman at his Cheltenham, Pa. home in 2004.

The state’s highest court threw out Cosby’s conviction after finding that District Attorney Kevin Steele, the prosecutor who brought the case against Cosby, violated an agreement to not charge him that previous District Attorney Bruce Castor had made in 2005, though the deal had apparently never been put in writing. 

Best known for “The Cosby Show,” the actor maintained his innocence. He had been denied parole in May 2021.

In June 2022, Jurors found Cosby sexually abused Judith Huth, who accused the former comedian of sexual assault at the Playboy mansion in 1975 when she was a teen.

Former Playboy model, Victoria Valentino, now 52, filed a lawsuit against Cosby in June, and claimed Cosby drugged and raped her in 1969. The model has previously spoken about her allegations against the comedian and even appeared at his sentencing in 2021.

NASCAR crew member hit in the pits as driver spins out

A NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series pit crew member was upended in a scary incident during a race at Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday afternoon in Alabama.

Zane Smith was driving the No. 38 Love’s truck into the pits when he appeared to lose control of his vehicle and spin out. As he veered toward his pit box, the back of his truck nailed the pit crew member, Charles Plank, holding his tires. Plank fell over the back of the truck.

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He appeared to be OK and talked to FOX Sports after the incident.

“I thought I could clear it, and I didn’t.” he said. “But it looks like I almost cleared it, jumping over. I’m glad I made it on the deck lid instead of getting underneath it.

APP USERS VIEW THE INCIDENT HERE.

“We’re ready for the next stop.”

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Smith was battling in the Truck series playoffs looking for a second consecutive championship but fell off the lead lap. He came into the race on the bubble as the Truck series is just a few weeks away from cutting down to the Championship Four.

Smith was in fifth place, just about 14 points from Grant Efinger for the final spot.

Corey Heim, Christian Eckes and Carson Hocevar entered the race in front of Efinger and Smith. Ben Rhodes, Nicholas Sanchez and Ty Majewski rounded out the top eight after Smith.

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