The team working with NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter released the picture at the right today of the Mar's Moon Phobos. The image was taken on March 23rd, 2008 from a distance of approximately 4,200 miles. Phobos is just over 16 miles long and is irregular in shape. It is believed that its gravity was not sufficient to compact it into the "common" sphere shape of most moons. The most prominent feature on Phobos is the large crater Stickney with a series of surface fractures radiating away from it created during its formation.
The Russians are preparing for a mission to Phobos, called Phobos-Grunt (Grunt is "ground" in Russian). The plan is to land on Phobos, collect a soil sample, and return it to Earth. They tried to land on Phobos a few decades ago but experienced a computer failure just days before intercept and all communications was lost.
This picture was taken with MRO's main camera which is called Hi-RISE. The colors are approximated since it is a combination of images taken through the filters on the camera (blue-green, red, and near-infrared). The smallest discernible features are about 65 feet across. You can think of Hi-RISE as an uber-camera with an XL lens. Really, the lens is a .5M (20") telescope with f/24 optics. It is designed to resolve details on the surface of Mars only 1 foot across.
The NASA Press Release is
here and the Hi-RISE website is
here.
Words: Steve Cullen, SpaceSpot.com
Image: NASA / JPL / Univ. of Arizona
Be The First