New Pictures of Phobos

[Ursa major]

Europe's Mars Express spacecraft has returned some remarkable close-up images of the Red Planet's Phobos moon.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Probe gets eyeful of Mars moon​

And from the ESA website:


"Mars Express closed in on the intriguing martian moon Phobos at 6:49 CEST on 23 July, flying past at 3 km/s, only 93 km from the moon. The ESA spacecraft’s fly-bys of the moon have returned its most detailed full-disc images ever, also in 3-D, using the High Resolution Stereo Camera on board."

ESA - Mars Express - Mars Express acquires sharpest images of martian moon Phobos​

 

[Sephiroth]

Just as long as they don't start mounting lasers on it.

 

[Nik]

The moonlet ? Or the Orbiter ??

IIRC, one of the proposed missions would zap surface with weak laser at each fly-by to generate mineralogical map...

 

[Sephiroth]

Ah, the moonlet. You just can't trust the United Nations.





No, I'm all for the orbiter doing it. Its lasers won't be able to annihilate tent cities....





I hope.......

 

[Dave]

Any suggestions about the reason for the grooves on the surface?

Apparently, the new pictures include some from an angle never seen before. These rule out the idea that the grooves are fractures associated with a volcanic structure. There are several other theories. The most likely is that they were caused by the debris from meteorite explosions. To me, they seem too regular, too parallel to be that. They almost look man-made.

 

[Sephiroth]

Yeah. From what I can gather, I would tend to support the idea that they are the result of debris ejected when other temporary 'moonlets' collided with the planet.


I'm only saying that because the most recent studies I can find seem to suggest it, though.

 

[mosaix]

Thanks for this UM - most interesting.

I'm not sure I understand the explanation for the straight lines - 'impact with debris'. How would debris cause lines that follow the surface of Phobos around its circumference and, apparently, up and down the walls of craters?

 

[chrispenycate]

I think they wrapped string round it to keep it together while it set.

 

[Ursa major]

Not another string theory - is there no end to them?