MRO image of Phobos shows artifact!

Nice, I didn't even know the MRO could even map Mars' moons like that. Sweet.

As for the thing we're talking about, I'm saying it's something natural, too. It's too small and low resolution to say anything else.

Either that, or unlikely, it's one of the many lost probes that has crashed into it.

Looks like it could be a spray of hot gases.
Not that i am completely sure about it, but i think it looks like a plume of some sort.

I dont think it is an object, but who knows, i could be wrong

The whole moon still looks metallic to me. Those craters look more like dents in sheet metal than an impact throwing up material.....where is the material normally thrown out by an impact? Compare it to our moon, completely different.

Some of those "craters" look like repeated impacts with the same object. Like a metal ball impacting something whilst spinning. If its metallic (and hollow) then the artifact could be a break in the surface, hence its sharp appearance.

Thanks to Enceladus for bringing this excellent find (Star & Flag) to my attention
I'll try to explain what i think we are looking at, but i warn you: you'll have hard time to understand it because my english sucks:
The white feature looks to be a peak of an elevation: it looks to be a part of a hill, and it has just a different color, what i would expect from an elevation on a rocky terrain covered by a papery layer of sand/dust:



And this is more or less what i think to be the conformation of the area:


if you take a dusty, originally reflectant white rock, and you clean just a part of it, you would obtain the same result when you put it under the sun.
Lol, i hope that what i've said does make sense

reply to post by internos
Hello Internos here is some info that might shed some light on this--
Phobos and Deimos may be composed of carbon-rich rock like C-type asteroids. But their densities are so low that they cannot be pure rock. They are more likely composed of a mixture of rock and ice. Both are heavily cratered. New images from Mars Global Surveyor indicate that Phobos is covered with a layer of fine dust about a meter thick, similar to the regolith on the Earth's Moon.

rock and ICE=reflection

just my two cents

Looks like a liquid nitrogen geyser to me. Though I didn't think Phobos had those.

[edit on 7-5-2008 by BrokenVisage]

Starred + Flag!

Check out my thread here for more interesting stuff on Phobos and the other Moons especially Eros...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Some images from Phobos:





Keep lookin'!! The truth is out there!

Cheers!

Originally posted by angelc01
reply to post by internos

 

Hello Internos here is some info that might shed some light on this--
Phobos and Deimos may be composed of carbon-rich rock like C-type asteroids. But their densities are so low that they cannot be pure rock. They are more likely composed of a mixture of rock and ice. Both are heavily cratered. New images from Mars Global Surveyor indicate that Phobos is covered with a layer of fine dust about a meter thick, similar to the regolith on the Earth's Moon.

rock and ICE=reflection

just my two cents

This does make perfectly sense and would explain both the brightness and the different coloration of the peak: thanks Angel.
of course when i talked about rocks i didn't intended granite or marmor
i'm still puzzled with what we see behind it: the shadow is definately inconsistent with what we see, it looks to be a deep.

This is a meteorite that is believed to have originated from Phobos

The Kaidun meteorite is a meteorite that fell on March 12, 1980 on a Soviet military base (lat. 15° N, long. 48.3° E) in Yemen. It is unique due to the wide variety of meteorite material found within it, causing some confusion as to its origin. In March 2004 it was suggested that the meteorite originated from the Martian moon Phobos.

It is largely made up of carbonaceous chondrite material of type CR2, but it is known to contain fragments of other types, such as C1, CM1, and C3. Of the nearly 60 minerals found within the meteorite, several have not been found elsewhere in nature, such as florenskiite, which has chemical symbol FeTiP.

The reason Phobos has been suggested is the existence of two extremely rare alkaline-rich clasts visible in the meteorite, each of which entered the rock at different times. This suggests that the parent body would have been near a source of an alkaline-rich rock, which is in particular a product of deep differentiation. This points to Mars and one of its moons, and Phobos is more likely than Deimos because it is closer to Mars.

Excellent find my friend. What it is is beyond me. I am sure people will says it is a doc image and that it is fake. However, I think this is an excellent image and some great debate should rage over this. Star and Flag for you my friend.

reply to post by internos


Forget the photoshop doodles; look at the shadow it casts, and its brilliance.

Whatever it is, I doubt it's some scuffed hump of ice. (And that alone is pretty remarkable.)

Originally posted by malcr
The whole moon still looks metallic to me. Those craters look more like dents in sheet metal than an impact throwing up material.....where is the material normally thrown out by an impact? Compare it to our moon, completely different.

Our moon has considerable amounts of gravity compared to phobos. You could practically reach escape velocity by jumping off phobos (well, not quite, but you only need to reach 40km/hr to hit escape velocity). The material ejected by impacts on phobos are travelling fast enough to escape the moon entirely.

This is best I can get, taken directly from the IMG file.



In this image the "feature" looks less sharp than on the (false) colour version.

It's strange, but not that strange, to me it looks like a spot that was harde than the rest, so when that crater was created it resisted more than the surrounding area.

Like this one.

Originally posted by gottago
reply to post by internos

 

Forget the photoshop doodles; look at the shadow it casts, and its brilliance.

Whatever it is, I doubt it's some scuffed hump of ice. (And that alone is pretty remarkable.)

I shouldn't explain you what i meant because you are obviously unable to get it: anyway, the shadow is INCONSISTENT with the formation and by the way: it's not my bad if you are unable to use Photoshop: sorry, but rather than "forget the photoshop doodles", i prefer to forget YOUR POST.


[edit on 8/5/2008 by internos]

I think it may be a hologram generator that covers the entrance
to the Phobos space station.
This huge rock was taken from the asteroid belt and placed in orbit
around Mars.
Think about it.

[edit on 7-5-2008 by Eurisko2012]

reply to post by mikesingh


Looks like a bunch of rocks to me....

reply to post by ArMaP


Let's face the truth here, it's pretty clear; it's obviously just a pimple and we should stop talking about it so much before we make Phobos more self-conscious. If someone wants to, we can donate some clearasil to go with our next probe to Mars.

reply to post by Dane69


The rebel alliance is hiding from the Empire at that location.. Lord Bush and Chancellor Cheney has been informed of there whereabouts

reply to post by thefreepatriot
My young friend are you sure you are posting in the correct thread
because as far as I can acount for this is a SCIENCE FORUM not political science be it terrestrial or be it extraterrestrial "YOU CHOOSE"
and on a side note stick to the topic my friend and put some positive input

Almost looks like something crystallized, quartz type materials are not unheard of in places like that I'm sure? It could also be a piece of space junk, we do have quite a bit of that stuff in our solar system

I'M Guess those IMG pics aren't so great. The bit of trivia(remember the 1000 bits I promised of useless info about Mars?) I recall hearing that Phobos was one of the darkest objects known as far as reflectance.So,anything halfway(quartz) bright by contrast would appear glistening in comparison to background,like a lit actor before a black curtain. Under the surface of loose dust coating of darkness gets pierced by occasional hills of brighter rock.Big deal.It casts an irregular shadow,not a symetrical shadow.Think symetry people.It's a hill on a dark baby moon(probably recently captured in geological time). Phobos is probably just a "lucky asteroid" that either bounced around Mars gravity well,or even bounced a glancing blow off Mars upper atmosphere and was BOUND like a marble around a plate. The sun just tricked us with glare on the hill ,emphasizing contrast (angle x foreground to background brightness). Gullivers Travels mentions 2 moons around Mars.