Friday 11 April 2008

Space Rocks……..


..….to which the two obvious responses would be ‘yes it does’ or ’indeed there are’.

Both are equally appropriate when viewing a truly marvellous photograph taken on the 23rd March by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter of one of the planet’s two moons Phobos.

The satellite was named after the Greek God, a son of Ares and Aphrodite. The name was chosen by the moons discoverer, the American astronomer Asaph Hall who also named the second Martian moon Deimos, who was the mythological characters brother.

Phobos itself is only 22 km (13.5 miles) in diameter. Its small size accounts for the irregular shape as its gravitational force is too weak to pull itself in to a sphere.


Enough said, enjoy.


7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I could look at photos of weird space rocks, nebulae etc all day long - quite fascinating.

jams o donnell said...

WOnderful. I agree Space rocks.. and the soundtrack is Hawkwind!

CherryPie said...

Nice picture, I am planning on a Jodrell Bank visit some time soon!

jmb said...

It reminds me of some kind of albino vegetable.

James Higham said...

Perhaps a version of Chez Grendel could be established out there?

Liz Hinds said...

Cor, it's all lumpy and bumpy! Isn't that weird?! So rather than diet, what I need to aim for is a stronger gravitational force?

Anonymous said...

Hej Grendel,
great minds think alike :-)

Go look at my April 6th post
http://www.savory.de/blog_apr_08.htm#20080406
wherein I give you a kit for building your very own 3D model of Phobos :-)