[meteorite-list] HiRISE Sees Phobos in Color and Stereo

From: Michael Murray <mmurray_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2008 13:08:20 -0600
Message-ID: <FD20D2C5-B8F1-44F7-821F-1CAF565E89F5_at_montrose.net>

Fantastic pictures. On the picture focusing in close on Stickney
crater, if you look at the left edge of the photo and about half way
up or a little more, it looks like the camera caught an object in
motion moving down the side away from the big crater creating another
one of the long grooves. Almost looks like this moon and the debris
on it are being influenced by some gravitational force, or? (Totally
uneducated observations on my part though)
Mike

On Apr 9, 2008, at 12:29 PM, Ron Baalke wrote:
>
> FROM: Lori Stiles (520-626-4402; lstiles at u.arizona.edu)
>
> HiRISE Sees Phobos in Color and Stereo
> University of Arizona
> April 9, 2008
>
> The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, run from The
> University
> of Arizona, has produced a new color stereo view of Phobos, the larger
> and inner of Mars' two tiny moons.
>
> The HiRISE camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took two
> images of Phobos 10 minutes apart on March 23. Scientists combined the
> images for a stereo view.
>
> "Phobos is of great interest because it may be rich in water ice and
> carbon-rich materials," professor Alfred McEwen of the UA's Lunar and
> Planetary Laboratory, and HiRISE principal investigator, said.
>
> Previous spacecraft, notably Mars Global Surveyor, have taken higher
> resolution pictures of Phobos because they flew closer to it, HiRISE
> team member Nathan Bridges of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in
> Pasadena, Calif., said.
>
> "But the HiRISE images are higher quality, making the new data some of
> the best ever for Phobos," Bridges said. "The new images will help
> constrain the origin and evolution of this moon."
>
> By combining information from the HiRISE camera's blue-green, red and
> near-infrared color channels, scientists confirmed that material
> around
> the rim of Phobos' largest surface feature, Stickney crater, appears
> bluer than the rest of Phobos. The impact that excavated 9-
> kilometer, or
> 5-and-a-half mile, Stickney is thought to have almost shattered the
> moon.
>
> If Phobos' surface is analogous with surface of our own moon, "the
> bluer
> color could mean that the regolith is fresher, or hasn't been
> exposed to
> space as long as the rest of Phobos' surface has," Bridges said.
>
> The HiRISE view also shows landslides along the walls of Stickney and
> other large craters, Phobos' striking surface grooves and crater
> chains,
> and craters hidden on the moon's dark side illuminated by "Marsshine."
>
> "Marsshine" is sunlight reflected by Mars onto the moon. The
> phenomenon
> is analogous to "Earthshine," where Earth reflects sunlight that
> illuminates the dark side of our moon. Like Earth's moon, Mars' moons
> Phobos and Deimos are "tidally locked" on their planet ? that is, they
> always present the same side to the planet they orbit.
>
> The HiRISE images are among several new HiRISE images being released
> today on the HiRISE Web site at http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu. The
> images include an anaglyph, or 3-D view of Phobos that can be viewed
> with red-blue glasses.
>
> MRO flies at about 7,800 mph between 155 and 196 miles, or between 250
> and 316 kilometers, above the surface of Mars.
>
> Phobos was 6,800 kilometers, or about 4,200 miles, away when the
> HiRISE
> camera took the first photograph. At that distance, the HiRISE camera
> was able to resolve surface features at a scale of 6.8 meters, or
> about
> 22 feet, per pixel, and see features as small as 20 meters, or 65
> feet,
> across.
>
> Phobos was 5,800 kilometers, or about 3,600 miles, away when the
> HiRISE
> camera took the second picture minutes later. At that distance, the
> HiRISE camera was able to resolve features about 15 meters, or 50
> feet,
> across.
>
> Phobos, only about 13 and a half miles, or 22 kilometers, in diameter,
> has less than one-thousandth the gravity of Earth. That's not enough
> gravity to pull the moon into a sphere, so it's oblong. Mars' second
> moon, Deimos, is even smaller, at about 7 and a half miles, or 12
> kilometers, across. The very dark, diminutive moons may be captured
> asteroids from the outer, carbon-rich, Mars-Jupiter asteroid belt.
>
> The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's Compact Reconnaissance Imaging
> Spectrometer for Mars, or CRISM, observed both Martian moons last
> year.
> By combining HiRISE and CRISM data on Phobos, scientists can map
> minerals and soil types on the moons.
>
> The mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division
> of the California Institute of Technology, for the NASA Science
> Mission
> Directorate. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, based in Denver, is the
> prime contractor and built the spacecraft. Ball Aerospace and
> Technologies Corp., of Boulder, Colo., built the HiRISE camera.
>
>
> CONTACTS:
> Nathan Bridges (818-393-7799; nathan.bridges at jpl.nasa.gov)
> Alfred McEwen (520-621-4573; mcewen at pirl.lpl.arizona.edu)
>
> MEDIA CONTACTS:
> Lori Stiles (520-626-4402; lstiles at u.arizona.edu)
> Guy Webster (818-354-6278; guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov)
>
> LINKS:
> HiRISE - http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu
> Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter -
> http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/main/index.html
> UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory - http://www.lpl.arizona.edu
>
> ______________________________________________
> http://www.meteoritecentral.com
> Meteorite-list mailing list
> Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Received on Wed 09 Apr 2008 03:08:20 PM PDT