Stunning New Pictures of Mars Moon Phobos

Smivs writes "NASA has released some detailed new images of Mars's moon Phobos. The photos are dominated by Stickney Crater, a 9-km (5.5-mi.) depression that is the largest feature on Phobos. The images were captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Some researchers claim that the unique, fist-sized Kaidun meteorite, which fell to Earth at a Russian military base in Yemen in 1980, is a piece of Phobos." Here's a link to all the new images.

any sign

[gEvil (beta) (945888)]

Any sign of the leather goddesses?

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[njfuzzy (734116)]

Alas, the Scratch and Sniff nature of the images doesn't transmit via the Internet, so we may never know.

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[dotancohen (1015143)]

After scratching near your monitor all night, I wouldn't want to sniff what's there.

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[LanMan04 (790429)]

Any sign of the leather goddesses?

Wow, and I thought I was the only one who remembered that particular text-adventure game.
My Dad had it on an unlabeled floppy in a drawer somewhere. Being like 11 and playing that game was great. ;)

HEY!

[bigattichouse (527527)]

I don't see one single leather goddess! I feel so let down.

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[Uthic (931553)]

They forgot to enable lewd mode

Larger Pic

[by Anonymous Coward]

Here is a direct link to the Hi-Res image, warning, it's 13 megs in size.

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/gallery/press/20080409b/PIA10369.jpg

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[somersault (912633)]

Is it NSFW? I don't need to get caught viewing a dominatrix crater being penetrated by a fist sized lump of rock

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[Missing_dc (1074809)]

Damn, "They" edited out the parked cylindrical spacecraft shown in the Russian photos.

Cool!

[tuxgeek (872962)]

Phobos looks to be not much more than just another egg shaped asteroid like object. Cool photo though!

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[4D6963 (933028)]

Phobos looks to be not much more than just another egg shaped asteroid like object.

Another egg shaped asteroid? Got any example of these? All the asteroids we've seen from pretty close up have had interesting shapes like Phobos'. The only asteroid I can think of as even remotely egg shaped is the very round Ceres, which is probably round because it's huge. And actually it's now considered a minor (or dwarf?) planet like Pluto.

Preposterous

[Tibor the Hun (143056)]

I didn't spend all these years training to fight demons through Phobos' and Deimos' labs and processing facilities for nothing.
I remember one time, I was knee deep in blood... It was hell..
Tibor

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[somersault (912633)]

Good thing you weren't able to look down towards your knees

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[Tibor the Hun (143056)]

Haha, no we didn't have the technology for something like that.
Boy in those days, the amount of energy needed to accomplish something like that would make the earth quake!

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[somersault (912633)]

I'm glad that they soon worked out how to do it using only the energy output of a mouse, though those quakes could be quite fun if you had friends around

i see pictures of panic and horror

[circletimessquare (444983)]

did they catch any pictures of fear and terror as well?

can we get a google maps version please?

[circletimessquare (444983)]

so i can get driving directions?

Driving directions:

[Rob T Firefly (844560)]

"Up."

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[circletimessquare (444983)]

i lolled. thanks

Late Breaking News:

[TripMaster Monkey (862126)]

The community heaved a collective *brzech* of relief today as K'Breel, Speaker for the most Illustrious Council of Elders, reassured the citizens that the latest encroachment by the evil blue planet had borne no fruit for the disgusting inhabitants thereof.

"Gentle Citizens, do not be alarmed! While it is true that the devices of terror sent by the horrific inhabitants of the sinister blue planet have managed to capture high-resolution images of our fortress satellites, their pathetic, oxygen-poisoned nerve clusters have not the wit to comprehend what they have seen! The poor primitive fools still believe they are gazing at natural moons with their hideous, liquid-filled sight organs! Rejoice, noble citizenry! Our plans continue unthreatened!"

K'Breel then unexpectedly led the crowd of citizens in an impromptu rendition of one of the more recent patriotic hymms: "My planet - accurate or erroneous. ".

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[mazarin5 (309432)]

It's a running gag that's been going on since at least the rover missions. He hasn't done it for a long time, but it's been sorely missed.

Yet Another Obligatory Reference

[dkleinsc (563838)]

Relax, they're just scouting out locations for a Union Aerospace Corporation base. Let's hope the teleportation experiments work this time.

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[mdenham (747985)]

The Gate is the key. The key is the Gate...

Stunning

[teebob21 (947095)]

Absolutely beautiful. Just one more striking image of a rock billions of miles away that makes me feel infinitely tiny. That said, for those who downloaded the full-res view, did anyone else notice the green rocks shown northwest of the southern crater? Scroll all the way to the right, middle of the image to see them. ...wonder what that is?

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[MaDMvD (1148691)]

I think I see what you're talking about, as I was wondering myself. Is this it? http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/8194/16888739jj2.jpg [imageshack.us]

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[tcolberg (998885)]

Maybe it's an outcropping of uranium, just like in Civilization!

Video game representations of reality aside, it's either going to be some color distortion due to refraction or it could be some type of green mineral embedded in the surface. Maybe some quartz impacted the surface, scattering the light as photographed?

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[teebob21 (947095)]

That's the spot! Wonder what it could be?

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[MaDMvD (1148691)]

I think it's closer to only about 35 million miles, not billions...

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[teebob21 (947095)]

Touche, point taken.

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[mazarin5 (309432)]

On average, 0.5e11m, or 50 million kilometers.

Oblig: That's no moon...

[TheJerg (1052952)]

...it's a spac- Wait. It actually IS a moon. Go figure.

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[MrMacman2u (831102)]

This not the moon you are looking for...

Phobos, Inverted.

[MaDMvD (1148691)]

Check it: http://images31.fotki.com/v1093/fileIXTO/a065a/4/413321/6115355/PhobosInverted.jpg [fotki.com]