Phobos monolith

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The Phobos monolith (right center), recorded by the Mars Global Surveyor (MOC Image 55103) in 1998.

The Phobos monolith is a surface feature of the Mars moon Phobos .

The Phobos Monolith is a bright object near the Stickney Crater . It is described as a rock as high as a house and casts a conspicuous shadow when the sun is low. It was first discovered by Efrain Palermo. The discovery was later confirmed by Lan Fleming, an imaging employee at NASA Johnson Space Center. A monolith is generally referred to as a large, single rock on earth that consists entirely of one and the same type of rock. It is not known whether this is also the case with the Phobos monolith.

The origin of the object has also not yet been clarified. It may be a piece of ejecta from an impact on the moon.

The area around the Phobos Monolith is being considered as the landing zone for an unmanned Canadian space mission called PRIME (Phobos Reconnaissance and International Mars Exploration). The PRIME mission will consist of an orbiter and a lander that will study the moon and its geology with four instruments each. PRIME is currently not budgeted, nor has a start date been given for the mission.

The Phobos monolith can be seen on the Mars Global Surveyor images SPS252603 and SPS255103 from 1998. The object is not related to a monolith on Mars, which NASA has identified as an example of a common Martian surface structure.

See also

credentials

  1. ↑ a b Optech press release, " Canadian Mission Concept to Mysterious Mars moon Phobos to Feature Unique Rock-Dock Maneuver ," May 3, 2007.
  2. ↑ PRIME: Phobos Reconnaissance & International Mars Exploration ( Memento of the original from May 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 673 kB), Mars Institute website, accessed July 27, 2009. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.marsinstitute.info
  3. ↑ Leslie Mullen: New Missions Target Mars Moon Phobos . In: Astrobiology Magazine , Space.com, April 30, 2009. Retrieved September 5, 2009. 
  4. ↑ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/5981624/Mars-monolith-fuels-theories-of-alien-life.html A rectangular object found jutting out of Mars's surface and caught on camera by the University of Arizona has caused speculation over the nature of the " monolith " and its origins. 9:45 AM BST, Aug 6, 2009

Web links

Commons : Phobos  - album with pictures, videos and audio files