Since Odyssey began orbiting the Red Planet in 2001, THEMIS has provided compositional and thermal-properties information from all over Mars, but never before imaged either Martian moon. Compositional information from THEMIS might help pin down their origin. One major question about Phobos and Mars' even smaller moon, Deimos, is whether they are captured asteroids or bits of Mars knocked into the sky by impacts. Observations in multiple bands of thermal-infrared wavelengths can yield information about the mineral composition of the surface, as well as the surface texture. Cameras on other Mars orbiters have previously taken higher-resolution images of Phobos, but none with the infrared information available from THEMIS. Phobos has an oblong shape with an average diameter of about 14 miles (22 kilometers). This image of Phobos is one product of the first pointing at that Martian moon by the THEMIS camera on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter. If it heats up very quickly, it's likely not very rocky but dusty instead." "As you go from predawn area to morning area you get to watch the heating behavior. "Including a predawn area in the observation is useful because all the heating from the previous day's sunshine has reached its minimum there," Hamilton said. As barefoot beach walks can confirm, sand warms or cools quicker than rocks or pavement. This provides information about how quickly the ground warms, which is related to the texture of the surface. Looking across the image from left to right presents a sequence of times of day on the Martian moon, from before dawn, to sunrise, to increasing amounts of time after dawn. "Part of the observed face of Phobos was in pre-dawn darkness, part in morning daylight," said THEMIS Deputy Principal Investigator Victoria Hamilton of the Southwest Research Institute, headquartered in San Antonio. Researchers have combined visible-wavelength and infrared data to produce an image color-coded for surface temperatures of this moon, which has been considered for a potential future human-mission outpost. Elizabeth first got interested in space after watching the movie Apollo 13 in 1996, and still wants to be an astronaut someday.The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) camera on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter observed Phobos on Sept. Elizabeth is also a post-secondary instructor in communications and science since 2015. in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota, a Bachelor of Journalism from Canada's Carleton University and a Bachelor of History from Canada's Athabasca University. Her latest book, "Why Am I Taller?", is co-written with astronaut Dave Williams. Elizabeth's reporting includes multiple exclusives with the White House and Office of the Vice-President of the United States, an exclusive conversation with aspiring space tourist (and NSYNC bassist) Lance Bass, speaking several times with the International Space Station, witnessing five human spaceflight launches on two continents, working inside a spacesuit, and participating in a simulated Mars mission. She was contributing writer for (opens in new tab) for 10 years before joining full-time, freelancing since 2012. Solar eclipse guide 2022: When, where & how to see themĮlizabeth Howell (she/her), Ph.D., is a staff writer in the spaceflight channel since 2022 covering diversity, education and gaming as well. "As a result," they added, "geophysicists can use those changes to better understand how pliable the interior of Mars is, revealing more about the materials within the crust and mantle." These forces also slowly change Phobos' orbit," JPL officials said in the statement. "As Phobos circles Mars, its gravity exerts small tidal forces on the Red Planet's interior, slightly deforming rock in the planet's crust and mantle. We're also learning more about the structure of Mars from such observations. Roughly 20 years of eclipse observations like this, taken from rovers on Mars, have refined the understanding of that moon's slowly collapsing orbit. Phobos is in a death spiral over Mars and will likely crash into the Red Planet's surface in a few tens of millions of years, researchers say. Scientists think the two lumpy bodies may be former asteroids that were captured by Mars' gravity. The other, Deimos, is even smaller than Phobos. Phobos, which is about 157 times smaller than Earth's moon, is one of Mars' two natural satellites.
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