Friday, April 11, 2008

Friday beautiful science

Today's Friday Beautiful Science is a photo of the moon Phobos. Phobos orbits Mars, and is orders of magnitude smaller than Earth's moon (compare Earth's moon at 3400 km in diameter to Phobos at 19-21 km in diameter). As you can clearly see in the photo, Phobos is not regularly shaped. From the Planetary Science blog:

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter approached to within 6,800 kilometers (4,200 miles) of Phobos to capture this enhanced-color view of the Martian moon on March 23, 2008. The color is from infrared, red, and blue-green channels on the camera, so it represents light shifted slightly longer in wavelength than human eues can see, which emphasizes subtle colorations on the moon. The color view shows that the material surrounding the giant crater Stickney (on the left side of the moon) appears gray while the rest of the moon appears reddish. The grayer material is likely fresher material.
Click on the photo to get a large majestic view of Phobos.

Digg!

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