Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Phobos 360

NASA ^ | December 25, 2013 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

Explanation: What does the Martian moon Phobos look like? To better visualize this unusual object, images from ESA's Mars Express orbiter have been combined into a virtual rotation movie. The rotation is actually a digital illusion -- tidally-locked Phobos always keeps the same face toward its home planet, as does Earth's moon. The above video highlights Phobos' chunky shape and an unusually dark surface covered with craters and grooves. What lies beneath the surface is a topic of research since the moon is not dense enough to be filled with solid rock. Phobos is losing about of centimeter of altitude a year and is expected to break up and crash onto Mars within the next 50 million years. To better understand this unusual world, Mars Express is on course to make the closest flyby ever on Sunday.

[Jack Hydrazine]

“The first indication of intelligent life on Earth lies in the geometric regularity of its constructions ....”
-Carl Sagan (Cosmos)

[ETL]

So you think someone “built” the entire asteroid, as opposed to just the monolith?

[ETL]

There are plenty of examples of straight lines and flat surfaces in nature. Crystals, for example. Other examples are geologic faults and fault planes. ‘Jointing’ as described above yet another.

[Jack Hydrazine]

That’s a good question. I don’t know.

[Jack Hydrazine]

That look like the photos I have posted? Post examples of what you cite.

[ETL]

Simply because there are some linear features that run at right angles to each other?

[Jack Hydrazine]

Post examples you cite.

[ETL]

Which photos are you referring to? Because I did post pics of what I was describing: jointing, fracturing, etc. I didn’t yet of faults and fault planes, though. But you don’t doubt they exist as linear features on Earth and elsewhere, do you?

[Jack Hydrazine]

Show me examples of rectilinear faults and planes that look similar to the photos I have posted of Phobos.

[ETL]

Post examples you cite.

Square crystals

[ETL]

Show me examples of rectilinear faults and planes that look similar to the photos I have posted of Phobos.

Who said nature does not make straight lines?

Have you ever wondered why some rocks appear to be cut intentionally? Faults and fractures exist in all kinds of rocks and they can be incredibly straight. Fracture is a general term for any type of surface along which rocks or minerals have broken. A fault is a specific type of fracture, where a displacement occurs between the cracked blocks. Examples of faults and fractures can be found in the Devil’s Punchbowl beach in Oregon Coast.  One photo shows a fault crossing 18 million-year-old sedimentary rocks – mostly made up of sand and silt. The other photo shows fractures cutting the top of a bedding surface of the same rock.

http://natural-history.uoregon.edu/fabiane-aline-acordes

[Jack Hydrazine]

Does nature make shapes like these???



This photo was taken of Mars by Mariner 9 (Frame 4209-75).
"It is also located in the equatorial area (at longitude 186.4) and has been described as "unusual indentations with radial arms protruding from a central hub" caused (according to NASA scientists) by the melting and collapse of permafrost layers."

NASA says it's just a natural formation. Are there any examples of something like this on Earth?

[ETL]

[Jack Hydrazine]

How would those look from space?

[ETL]

Giant’s Causeway

[Jack Hydrazine]

Everything you are showing me is five and six-sided. No rectilinear structures made by nature on a large scale.

[ETL]

[Jack Hydrazine]

[ETL]

[Jack Hydrazine]

You aren’t showing me anything compared to the IR photos taken of Phobos by the Russian Phobos 2 satellite.