Posted on 01/18/2013 3:13:45 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Explanation: Stickney Crater, the largest crater on the martian moon Phobos, is named for Chloe Angeline Stickney Hall, mathematician and wife of astronomer Asaph Hall. Asaph Hall discovered both the Red Planet's moons in 1877. Over 9 kilometers across, Stickney is nearly half the diameter of Phobos itself, so large that the impact that blasted out the crater likely came close to shattering the tiny moon. This stunning, enhanced-color image of Stickney and surroundings was recorded by the HiRISE camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as it passed within some six thousand kilometers of Phobos in March of 2008. Even though the surface gravity of asteroid-like Phobos is less than 1/1000th Earth's gravity, streaks suggest loose material slid down inside the crater walls over time. Light bluish regions near the crater's rim could indicate a relatively freshly exposed surface. The origin of the curious grooves along the surface is mysterious but may be related to the crater-forming impact.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
"...is less than 1/1000th Earth's gravity..."
In other words a bad case of flatulence could put you in orbit.
Hey, at my age I’m almost that way in Earth grav! ;’)
LOL!
Hoagland's take on the subject:
http://www.enterprisemission.com/Phobos.html
Hoaxland’s not a scientist, and his take is irrelevant, and is definitely not science.
Phobos isn’t “obviously metallic”, it appears shiny here and there at certain angles; from Mars-side it’s obviously rocky. The close-up studies of it lead to the conclusion that it isn’t primarily metal, at all.
The moon is so small and irregularly shaped, the horizon varies a great deal but would appear to be just over the next rise to a visitor to the surface. Those lines are from rolling debris after the impact.
:’) Asaph that’s the most atrocious pun I’ve made...
Is the Stickney Crater anywhere near Uranus?
Sorry for being so atrocious...they kind of write themselves.
:^)
Who ever thought Astronomy could be so naughty?
The late Larry Gedney comes through from beyond the grave...
The Hollow Earth Theory
Article #718
by Larry Gedney
http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF7/718.html
http://www2.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF7/images/718.jpg
Illustration from the October 1882 issue of Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, showing the appearance of Symmes’ Hole near the North Pole.
One can never be sure just how serious they are about it, but there does exist a group of people who call themselves the “Flat-Earth Society” (remember the news item about the old gentleman who was invited to Cape Kennedy to watch an Apollo moon launch, but came away convinced that it was all a hoax?). There is another group, equally vocal, who believe that the earth is hollow. Several years ago, a group of “believers” informed a member of the Geophysical Institute staff that there was an opening to the center of the earth in the Alaska Range, and that this was an entry and exit point for flying saucers.
Modern-day proponents of the hollow earth theory can refer nonbelievers to the book The Hollow Earth (Bell Publishing Company, 1979) by Raymond Bernard. Bernard, judging from the initials he lists behind his name, holds just about every advanced academic degree, but is apparently somewhat of a recluse. As a spokesman for the publisher states in a foreword to the book, “I will not enter into any correspondence regarding this book — or the author. Whether you accept or reject the content of this book is your privilege. No one cares.”
The crux of the hollow earth theory is that the earth is a shell with walls about 800 miles thick. In the polar regions there are holes 1400 miles across, with edges that curve smoothly from the outside of the shell around to the inside. A sea or surface traveler could proceed over an edge of the hole, like an ant crawling over the lip of a coffee mug from the outside to the inside, and not be aware that he was actually entering the interior of the earth. Bernard explains that the holes have never been seen from the air because pilots are fooled by their compasses into believing that they are crossing the pole, when they are actually following the hole’s “magnetic rim”. Thus aircraft never really fly over the geographic poles, which naturally mark the centers of the holes themselves. As irrefutable proof of his claim, he cites Admiral Byrd’s statement, “I’d like to see that land beyond the Pole. That area beyond the Pole is the Great Unknown.”
The hollow earth theory actually seems to have been originated in the early 1800s by John Symmes, an earnest American who devoted the greater part of his later life to convincing the world that the earth was formed by a series of concentric shells.
Symmes believed that there were miles of wondrous unclaimed domain beneath our feet, with lush vegetation and fish and game for the taking. Apparently, there were those who took him seriously. As reported in the October 1882 issue of Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, a Mr. Howgate had recently been in the news, proposing that an expedition be made to discover “Symmes’ Hole.” His plan was to have a number of men acclimate themselves to higher and higher latitudes, moving further north each year. They were to observe the animals that presumably wintered over within the earth each year and emerged during the spring to bear young. Eventually, the colony of men were to follow the animals in the fall to find where they entered into that marvelous land at the center of the earth.
Sadly for this romantic concept, if today’s believers are correct, the only thing that they would find there now are flying saucers.
This article is provided as a public service by the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, in cooperation with the UAF research community. Larry Gedney is a seismologist at the Institute.
Richard Hoagland and Tom Van Flandern had/have major kinds of astronophysics credentials; most of the people calling them kooks, including YOU, don’t.
Hoaxland *was* a journalist, and he has no scientific credentials, AT ALL. He had so little credibility, even journalists (other than Linda Howe) regarded him as a laughingstock. His “Angstrom Medal” is a one-off coin-like thing presented over a private one-table dinner by a descendant of the scientist by that name, and is basically a little less important than a bowling trophy.
TVF had credentials and worked in the field, and his book on the EPH is definitely worth reading (I have both editions, but have only read the first one). TVF also had a nutty attachment to the ridiculous fiction that there’s a Face on Mars; as a consequence, he made himself look like an asshat, particularly after the higher-res images showed the “face” to be an unremarkable, asymmetric, natural formation.
Stickknee Crater is the large one, I vote that the little, newer crater at the top of it in that shot be dubbed Pegleg.
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