Phobos Mars’s Mysterious moon
July 11th 2011 04:17
Category: Mars
Phobos
It is not very often that you have the opportunity to see two celestial bodies visually interact.
In a visual way. The image of the Martian moon Phobos with a distant
view of Jupiter was captured by
the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter.
The tiny moon if you could call it a moon Phobos appeared
reminiscent of a large potato as it passed in front of distant Jupiter. Phobos is only11 miles (18 km) wide
and half again as long, Phobos has a single dominant crater
(Stickney), seen in the animation at the lower-left edge of the moon's irregular surface.
The spacecraft's High Resolution Stereo Camera
imaged just over one hundred frames over a period of 68 seconds.
Phobos, appears large because it was 46,000 times closer, as it crossed across Jupiter’s field of view.
At the time of shooting the images Phobos was a mere 7,077 miles (11,389 km)
from the Mars Express orbiter’s
camera with Jupiter orbiting a further 329 million miles (529 million km) distant.
It is expected that future fly- by’s of Phobos will offer up some clues relating to it’s origin.
Phobos could be a future base for astronauts perhaps in the next 30 years.
Mars Express orbiter has been in orbit around Mars since 2003 and is still operational.
ESA’s Mars Express orbiter continues to take images of the Martian surface.
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Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief
It doesn't look as though it has an atmosphere. Would that make it a better base than Mars?
Comment by CMoreStars
Astroearth
Camera Sense
Thank you for the comment.
Phobos has a pretty sterile environment, it is very doubtful that it has an atmosphere, if at all any trace of an atmosphere would be negligible.
The “moon” is most likely to be a captured asteroid. Strategically Phobos would be a good place to put a temporary base before landing on Mars.
Based on current world events it will be a long time before humans get to Mars.
Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief
Comment by Kleonaptra
Kalikapsychosis
You make me miss my telescope.
Comment by CMoreStars
Astroearth
Camera Sense
Hi Kleonaptra,
It is all to do with
gravity, Phobos has very little gravity where as Mars’s gravity force is much like here on Earth.
If there was a problem with take off and getting back to Earth chances are that you would much more difficult getting into orbit if you were taking of from the Martian surface.
The fuel resources would be greater on a manned module taking off from the Martian surface the craft would have to carry much more fuel.
It makes better sense taking off and landing on a moon with little gravity.
Comment by CMoreStars
Astroearth
Camera Sense
Thank you for reading my blog.
Yes it is sad to see the end of the Space shuttle. let us hope that we don`t lose the momentum of the last 50 years.