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Astronomy Picture of the Day - Small Moon Deimos
NASA ^ | 7 Sep, 2024 | Image Credit: HiRISE, MRO, LPL (U. Arizona), NASA

Posted on 09/07/2024 1:04:50 PM PDT by MtnClimber

Explanation: Mars has two tiny moons, Phobos and Deimos, named for the figures in Greek mythology Fear and Panic. Detailed surface views of smaller moon Deimos are shown in both these panels. The images were taken in 2009, by the HiRISE camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft, NASA's long-lived interplanetary internet satellite. The outermost of the two Martian moons, Deimos is one of the smallest known moons in the Solar System, measuring only about 15 kilometers across. Both Martian moons were discovered in 1877 by Asaph Hall, an American astronomer working at the US Naval Observatory in Washington D.C. But their existence was postulated around 1610 by Johannes Kepler, the astronomer who derived the laws of planetary motion. In this case, Kepler's prediction was not based on scientific principles, but his writings and ideas were so influential that the two Martian moons are discussed in works of fiction such as Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, written in 1726, over 150 years before their discovery.


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; asaphhall; astronomy; deimos; gulliverstravels; johanneskepler; jonathanswift; mars; nasa; phobos; science; usno
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For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

1 posted on 09/07/2024 1:04:50 PM PDT by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

2 posted on 09/07/2024 1:05:07 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page. More photos added.)
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To: 21stCenturion; 21twelve; 4everontheRight; abb; AFB-XYZ; AFPhys; Agatsu77; America_Right; ...
Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

3 posted on 09/07/2024 1:05:52 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page. More photos added.)
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To: MtnClimber

It looks like a potato that could be cut up into french fries with a cheeseburger order.


4 posted on 09/07/2024 1:07:03 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page. More photos added.)
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To: MtnClimber

Like a grain of sand, been polished by millions of collisions?


5 posted on 09/07/2024 1:13:06 PM PDT by doorgunner69 (I don't know what he said at the end of that sentence. i don't think he knows what he said either)
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To: MtnClimber

12.5 km average circumference. Good place to practice running a half marathon. Might need extra oxygen.


6 posted on 09/07/2024 1:35:26 PM PDT by Larry Lucido (Donate! Don't just post clickbait!)
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To: Larry Lucido

Bring your own gravity.


7 posted on 09/07/2024 1:39:53 PM PDT by VTenigma (Conspiracy theory is the new "spoiler alert")
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To: Larry Lucido

It might be small enough to launch yourself into orbit with a long jump.


8 posted on 09/07/2024 1:42:42 PM PDT by Nateman (Democrats did not strive for fraud friendly voting merely to continue honest elections.)
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To: MtnClimber

Deimos’s escape velocity is only 5.8 m/s. A stone dropped from waist height would take around 30 seconds to reach the ground.


9 posted on 09/07/2024 1:46:34 PM PDT by Nateman (Democrats did not strive for fraud friendly voting merely to continue honest elections.)
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To: MtnClimber
Land on it with robotic mining equipment, hollow it out, put windows on those bigger craters and a rocket on the back.

Space motor home.


10 posted on 09/07/2024 2:10:06 PM PDT by Alas Babylon! (Repeal the Patriot Act; Abolish the DHS; reform FBI top to bottom!)
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To: Nateman
Deimos’s escape velocity is only 5.8 m/s.

You could throw rocks from Deimos have them fall on Mars. Hint: throw them in the direction Deimos came from.

11 posted on 09/07/2024 2:53:47 PM PDT by marktwain (The Republic is at risk. Resistance to the Democratic Party is Resistance to Tyranny. )
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To: MtnClimber

Mmmmmmm . . . cheeseburger and fries . . .

Oh great. Now I’m going to have to go grab some grub because I can’t cook worth squat. :-)


12 posted on 09/07/2024 3:00:41 PM PDT by AFB-XYZ (Two options: 1) Stand up, or 2) Bend over)
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To: MtnClimber

I always knew that deep down inside, you love cheeseburgers, too.


13 posted on 09/07/2024 3:02:50 PM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer” )
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To: Alas Babylon!
Hillbilly space motor home.
14 posted on 09/07/2024 4:11:22 PM PDT by NavyShoe
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To: MtnClimber

This was an early attempt at bowling balls. The finger holes weren’t deep enough, and the triagular shape made the ball very unpredictable.

Live and learn.


15 posted on 09/07/2024 4:18:07 PM PDT by DannyTN
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To: MtnClimber

Jonathan Swift and the moons of Mars
David Darling
https://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/S/Swift.html

How did Jonathan Swift predict mars moon speeds?
Ian_Brooks
June 24, 2009
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/how-did-jonathan-swift-predict-mars-moon-speeds.321709/

My first encounter with this was here:

Jonathan Swift and the Moons of Mars
Ken D. Moss
Kronos vol.0804
Summer 1983


16 posted on 09/07/2024 4:27:51 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
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To: MtnClimber
Captured asteroids?

The USNO’s 26” refractor telescope was used to discover those two moons. I wonder if the current resident has even bothered to look thru it. I would love to be vice president just to live on the grounds and look through that beast.

17 posted on 09/07/2024 5:54:46 PM PDT by telescope115 (I NEED MY SPACE!!! 🔭)
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To: MtnClimber

There was a sci fi story where explorers found the third moon that was at such a low altitude that it cut through mountains.

Three moons

phobos
demos
bottom most


18 posted on 09/07/2024 9:14:00 PM PDT by Fractal Trader
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To: MtnClimber

Looks like cheese.


19 posted on 09/07/2024 10:09:04 PM PDT by NetAddicted (MAGA2024)
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To: Nateman; MtnClimber
Deimos’s escape velocity is only 5.8 m/s.

Its orbital velocity would then be 5.8 m/2 divided by the square root of 2.

So, about 4.1 m/s. Or roughly 10 miles per hour.

Doable.

Regards,

20 posted on 09/08/2024 2:09:36 AM PDT by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
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