Hubble shoots movie of Phobos
Cool image time! By taking a quick series of thirteen images, the Hubble Space Telescope was able to shoot a short movie of the rotation of Phobos above the surface of Mars. The gif animation on the right is the smaller of the two animations released today. Be sure and view the full resolution version.
What is even cooler is that movie was apparently unplanned. From the link:
Over the course of 22 minutes, Hubble took 13 separate exposures, allowing astronomers to create a time-lapse video showing the diminutive moon’s orbital path. The Hubble observations were intended to photograph Mars, and the moon’s cameo appearance was a bonus.
In terms of science this movie has a somewhat limited value. In terms of space engineering it is triumph, and once again illustrates the unprecedented value of having an optical telescope in space. Woe to us all when Hubble finally dies, as we have no plans to replace it.
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In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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Cool image time! By taking a quick series of thirteen images, the Hubble Space Telescope was able to shoot a short movie of the rotation of Phobos above the surface of Mars. The gif animation on the right is the smaller of the two animations released today. Be sure and view the full resolution version.
What is even cooler is that movie was apparently unplanned. From the link:
Over the course of 22 minutes, Hubble took 13 separate exposures, allowing astronomers to create a time-lapse video showing the diminutive moon’s orbital path. The Hubble observations were intended to photograph Mars, and the moon’s cameo appearance was a bonus.
In terms of science this movie has a somewhat limited value. In terms of space engineering it is triumph, and once again illustrates the unprecedented value of having an optical telescope in space. Woe to us all when Hubble finally dies, as we have no plans to replace it.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
As a besserwisser pretend-to-be I would’ve remarked that it is the orbit of Phobos, not its rotation, that is being observed. But since it is tidally locked it is the same thing, so you get away with it this time.
The rotation of Mars and the orbit of Phobos doesn’t look to add up in the animation.
The article states:
Rising in the Martian west, it runs three laps around the Red Planet in the course of one Martian day
If it can do that, is it tidally locked?
The fate of Behind The Black hangs on the answer.
eddie willers: You ask a really good question. According to this story, it is tidally locked, which does not surprise me.
eddie willers
Phobos orbits Mars close enough to beat beat lazy Mars’ rotation. If you think a second about hoe things turn, which is dizzying. The nearer the faster. It really goes the other way to Deimos, apparently as seen from Mars’ surface. Two moons going in opposite directions across the red sky. I wonder what an astrologer would say about that omen. And it is spiraling inwards. In only ten million years or so, rubble pile Phobos will have come so deep into Mars’ gravity well that it gets ripped apart by the curved spacetime and forms a ring, raining down asteroids on poor Mars.
Localfluff,
All the more reason, then, to get there, grind up Phobos, turn it into luxury condos and move them all out to a safer orbital distance using SEP and some of that abundant Martian argon.
eddie willers asked: “If it can do that, is it tidally locked?”
Tidally locked means that it keeps the same face toward the planet, or outward, as the Space.com article put it. The Moon is tidally locked, despite taking a month to go around the Earth.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_locking
“tidal locking results in one hemisphere of the revolving object constantly facing its partner”
(Whew. The fate of Behind The Black is secure once again.)