Ned Potter is the science correspondent for ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson." He has reported on such topics as space exploration, the human genome and climate change.
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The God of Fear
April 11, 2008 6:44 PM
Quickly, before the opportunity passes, I wanted to share an image from a few days ago.
It is of Phobos, the larger of the two moons of Mars, as seen by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, from a distance of about 4,000 miles. Phobos is only about 13 miles in diameter, which means its gravity is about a thousandth as strong as Earth's. No (I've asked), an astronaut would not be able to achieve escape velocity by jumping, but neither is the gravity strong enough to have pulled the little world, when it was young and molten, into a spherical shape.
Deimos, the other known Martian moon, is only about seven miles across, which makes one wonder how the astronomer Asaph Hall spotted them from more than 35 million miles away in 1877.
NASA says the reddish colors -- and the bluish ejecta from relatively young craters -- are realistic, but exaggerated to help separate them. There's more HERE, including some images for which you'll need 3-D glasses.
A tiny, cold world. Makes you grateful that spring has arrived here on Earth's northern hemisphere.
April 11, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (7)
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Looks like a rather largish potato. I wonder how many French Fries you could get out of such a large spud. The folks who live in Idaho would be indeed proud of this if they could grow one this big. Ned, it's certainly an interesting view of this little moon, and a welcome change from the last week or so. Too bad we don't have a picture of the two moons against their captor-planet.
Posted by: Andy | Apr 12, 2008 9:16:46 AM
Pretty cool! It looks like a Martian Avocado.
Posted by: Elizabeth | Apr 12, 2008 12:02:50 PM
Nice. Could have used this last year for my astronomy presentation.
Posted by: Ben | Apr 12, 2008 11:45:10 PM
The God of Fear? What does your title of this bit piece have to do with anything in it?
Posted by: Kix | Apr 13, 2008 11:18:25 AM
The moon is named Phobos, which is the ancient Greek god of fear
Posted by: Chris | Apr 13, 2008 12:14:44 PM
The other moon, Deimos, is named after the God of Panic, both companions of war, the God of which is named Mars.
Posted by: Andy | Apr 13, 2008 12:54:25 PM
The craters reminds me of an article I once read called "Wormwood" Name given to heavenly body that will destroy Earth
Posted by: Chris | Apr 14, 2008 3:15:15 AM
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