Posted on 10/28/2012 11:59:25 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Explanation: This moon is doomed. Mars, the red planet named for the Roman god of war, has two tiny moons, Phobos and Deimos, whose names are derived from the Greek for Fear and Panic. These martian moons may well be captured asteroids originating in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter or perhaps from even more distant reaches of the Solar System. The larger moon, Phobos, is indeed seen to be a cratered, asteroid-like object in this stunning color image from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, recorded at a resolution of about seven meters per pixel. But Phobos orbits so close to Mars -- about 5,800 kilometers above the surface compared to 400,000 kilometers for our Moon -- that gravitational tidal forces are dragging it down. In 100 million years or so Phobos will likely be shattered by stress caused by the relentless tidal forces, the debris forming a decaying ring around Mars.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Credit: HiRISE, MRO, LPL (U. Arizona), NASA ]
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Is that ice or metal on the surface?
Pure platinum.
What they need to do is ram about 50 or so of these into Mars to boost the planet’s gravity and make it more suitable for human life.
It’s the streets of a martian trailer park.
That is one cool rock. It would look great in my collection.
Cool. That one crater on the far right side of the pic almost looks like a rocket booster surrounded by millions of years of debris collection
I followed the pic links.... is that image large enough? lol.
Of course I copied it to my HDD
It’s “Fear’’ and “Terror’’.’’ Demos’’ is ‘’terror’’.
How many craters on Mars are the result of earlier Phobos-like moons crashing into the planet?
The original sense of "phobos" was "flight" (the related verb "phebomai" means "to be put to flight"), and according to the lexicon that is the only meaning of "phobos" in Homer. Later it becomes "panic fear" (such as causes flight), then "fear" more generally.
i’d be most interested in what caused the drag lines?? Some lines were made before craters, others were made after craters. hhhmmmmmmm...
lol.
A spot of Bondo and a little rubbing compound will take that right out.
LOL! Good stuff.
If you weigh 200 pounds on Earth, you’ll weigh 3 ounces on Phobos.
That’s a spud, Nick.
Has anyone ever explained how the descriptions of the two moons of Mars got into the book Gullivers Travels, years and years before they were ‘dicovered’ by astronomers?
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