Tag Archives: Phobos

A rover for Phobos and Deimos

Mars has two small moons, Phobos and Deimos. These are the target of the Japanese Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission, which also involves international partners. Scheduled for launch in 2024, it will enter Mars orbit in 2025, and return samples … Continue reading

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Phobos: Full Moon view

For the first time, NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter has caught the Martian moon Phobos during a full moon phase. Each color in this new image represents a temperature range detected by Odyssey’s infrared camera, which has been studying the Martian … Continue reading

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Curiosity catches two solar eclipses

When NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover landed in 2012, it brought along eclipse glasses. The solar filters on its Mast Camera (Mastcam) allow it to stare directly at the Sun. Over the past few weeks, Curiosity has been putting them to … Continue reading

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Phobos grooves produced by rolling boulders

[Ed. note: This research was described previously here.] Planetary Geomorphology Image of the Month, January 1, 2019: Kenneth Ramsley (Brown University). All but one region of Phobos, the largest moon of Mars, is covered by hundreds of valley-like features, usually … Continue reading

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Did rolling stones made Phobos groovy?

A new study bolsters the idea that strange grooves crisscrossing the surface of the Martian moon Phobos were made by rolling boulders blasted free from an ancient asteroid impact. The research, published in Planetary and Space Science, uses computer models … Continue reading

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Phobos & Deimos likely formed from big impact on Mars

[Editor’s note: From a paper by Timothy Glotch and seven co-authors recently published in the Journal of Geophysical Research.] MGS‐TES Spectra Suggest a Basaltic Component in the Regolith of Phobos • Mars Global Surveyor Thermal Emission Spectrometer spectra of Phobos … Continue reading

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Phobos may have come from big impact on Mars

Spectral fingerprints of Phobos’ surface support an ancient big crash origin for the Martian moon. The weird shapes and colors of the tiny Martian moons Phobos and Deimos have inspired a long-standing debate about their origins. The dark faces of … Continue reading

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HST images dusty Mars (and Phobos and Deimos) at opposition

With both Saturn and Mars coming to opposition — lying directly opposite the Sun in the sky — this summer, scientists used the Hubble Space Telescope to image both planets. But unlike the previous opposition, Mars is experiencing a planet-wide … Continue reading

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Curiosity update: Drill site perspectives from a Duluth native

Sol 2055, May 18, 2018, update by MSL scientist Roger Wiens: I was excited to learn earlier this week that my native city was chosen as the name of the latest drill site on Mars! The name was selected by … Continue reading

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Curiosity update: Duluth at our feet… er, wheels

Sol 2054, May 16, 2018, update by MSL scientist Abigail Fraeman: Our sol 2054 plan was limited by a small morning downlink. Occasionally, the flight paths of the Mars orbiters over Gale Crater don’t have favorable geometries for relays with Curiosity, … Continue reading

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