Scientists have said that NASA's Opportunity Mars rover has spotted and photographed its first dust devil in six years of traveling around the planet.

SPACE. com reported on Thursday that unlike Spirit, its robotic twin on Mars, which has captured numerous snaps of dust devils, Opportunity has always come up empty, until now.

The rover science team also said that the July 15 photo was taken with Opportunity's mast-mounted panoramic camera.

According to them, Spirit has had more luck spotting dust devils because its exploration site with a crater is rougher and dustier, so vortices of wind from and kick up more dust.

It has been reported that Opportunity and Spirit arrived on the surface of Mars in 2004, for missions originally designed to last for three months. Opportunity landed on Mars Jan. 25, 2004.

Spirit fell silent on March 22 of this year, when it missed a planned communications session with controllers on Earth.

The rover team further said that it has been out of communication since then, entering a low-power hibernation mode as the Martian winter set in and temperature dropped, leaving the rover with insufficient power to properly function. (With Inputs from Agencies)