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.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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.)