Latest Phobos Observations & Results
On Easter Sunday, the HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter imaged Mars’ moon Phobos up close for the first time. The spectacular images have been released today here and were alluded to about a week ago on the HiRISE Blog. All I can say is WOW! Hopefully these images will assist in solving some of the riddles associated with Phobos’ composition and it’s origin.
Here are some of the other images…
I’ve also noticed a few interesting papers and posters that were presented at the recent 39th Lunar & Planetary Sciences Conference related to Phobos. A paper was presented on the PRIME Mission Concept & Mars Sample Return, which I was involved with (see my earlier post), by Pascal Lee and some more work on the recent CRISM observations of Phobos and Deimos. There was also a poster about Mining Technology on Phobos and Deimos that has also sparked some interesting discussions over at The Martian Chronicles. There were also some presentations the Grooves on Phobos and Results from the Hyperspectral Imager on Mars Express. It is great to see lots more research happening.
April 14th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Hi Michael West.
I am Andrew Brown, from Ashford, Kent, UK, can be found on Space.com (SDC) under user 3488.
I have posted the same on the MRO HiRISE HiBlog.
Great blog you have here. I have been really examining the images, making crops & enlargements of various features. What do you think of Phobos & Deimos origins?
1). Pieces of debris lifted from Mars through large impacts & formed out of that?
2). Formed insitu around Mars?
3). Both are captured type D asteroids, that once were in heliocentric orbit in the outer part of the Asteroid Belt?
Myself, personally, I think No 3.
I hope that HiRISE will repeat these observations when Mars is in a different position in its heliocentric orbit, so the angle of illumination will be different (obviously not when Phobos is at New Phase, as there would be nothing to see & we do not want an accidental pointing of HiRISE at the Sun).
Also I hope that Deimos too, will be observed. Using the same filters as for the Phobos observations would be really useful in comparing the two, like for like & we’ll see how similar or different they are.
The grooves in their east - west direction are very detailed. To me it looks like they are very old, as many of them have craters superimposed, so what ever caused them, appears to have stopped. General idea that they are fractures from the Stickney impact, yet I have seen doubts cast on that idea by ESA scientists, using Mars Express data, stressing that their convergence point do not meet in the centre of Stickney Crater & they may already have been there. Worth mentioning that Main Belt Asteroid 951 Gaspra has grooves also.
Andrew Brown.
April 16th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for you message. You raise some very interesting questions, which a short response wouldn’t do justice to. I’m about to get married so will be off the grid for a while but I will endeavour to add some of my thoughts in a later and more substantial post - probably in a months time. I hope you can drop back in then. Keep pondering Phobos in the meantime - it is a mysterious world.
Cheers,
Michael
April 16th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
Cheers Michael.
I hope all goes very well for you, going anywhere nice for the Honeymoon?
Please email me your email address, I will try & send you some crops & images of Phobos & Deimos that I have been working on or links to them if they do not send.
They can also be seen at Space.com & The Spaceport forums & you have my permission to use them as you will.
My main interest is Planetary Science in general, volcanic & terrestrial worlds in particular, the Jupiter moon Io obviously is my main interest, with Earth, Ganymede, Europa, Callisto, Venus, Mars, Mercury, Enceladus The Moon & Triton not far behind.
I too am fascinated by the asteroids & of course Phobos & Deimos, as well some of the smaller moons like Amalthea, Phoebe, etc. These objects are a treasure trove of information.
I was one of the people who offered CRISM & HiRISE observations of Phobos & Deimos in the HiRISE pointing suggestions, so it is difficult to tell, if I had a direct impact on the decision for this to happen. I think so as I built up a good case.
I will come back when I have some new stuff.
Andrew Brown.
July 5th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Hi Michael,
Congrats on the wedding. You may or may not remember me. We met briefly at ANU with Jon before you went to Canada. Unfortunately I didn’t get to participate at the conference in California last year. Currently I’m working with Dr Graziella Caprarelli at UTS on various MEX datasets specific to Phobos.
I was wondering, while you were working on PRIME, was there any discussion on using penetrator technology on Phobos, to expose bedrock beneath the regolith? Was this explored and dropped due to technical difficulty?
July 24th, 2008 at 10:17 am
Hi, it’s me again.
Mars Express is supposedly making several close passes with Phobos about now, one as close as 97 KM.
Wonder when we will get to see the images & other data? Also is Mars Express going to rendezvous with Deimos & whether the MRO HiRISE will ever observe Deimos (I know Deimos will not be as impressive as Phobos was, but still would be absolutely amazing).
Andrew Brown.