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Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Stickney Crater
NASA ^ | January 18, 2013 | (see photo credit)

Posted on 01/18/2013 3:13:45 PM PST by SunkenCiv

Explanation: Stickney Crater, the largest crater on the martian moon Phobos, is named for Chloe Angeline Stickney Hall, mathematician and wife of astronomer Asaph Hall. Asaph Hall discovered both the Red Planet's moons in 1877. Over 9 kilometers across, Stickney is nearly half the diameter of Phobos itself, so large that the impact that blasted out the crater likely came close to shattering the tiny moon. This stunning, enhanced-color image of Stickney and surroundings was recorded by the HiRISE camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as it passed within some six thousand kilometers of Phobos in March of 2008. Even though the surface gravity of asteroid-like Phobos is less than 1/1000th Earth's gravity, streaks suggest loose material slid down inside the crater walls over time. Light bluish regions near the crater's rim could indicate a relatively freshly exposed surface. The origin of the curious grooves along the surface is mysterious but may be related to the crater-forming impact.

January 18, 2013

(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; asaphhall; astronomy; bodeslaw; catastrophism; chloestickneyhall; deimos; grooves; impact; mars; phobos; rochelimit; rocheradius; science; stickneycrater; striations; titiusbode; titiusbodeslaw
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To: SunkenCiv

NO WAY would I dare name a big hole after my wife.


21 posted on 01/18/2013 4:48:15 PM PST by bigheadfred
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To: left that other site

I was actually startled as it started to load, no joke, and I’d seen similar pics before, just not in a Demille closeup. :’)


22 posted on 01/18/2013 4:49:52 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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more from the FRchives:
23 posted on 01/18/2013 4:50:12 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Interesting Place.

Just wait till the Timeshare developers get a hold of it!

I already see a place for a large, rock-lined spa!


24 posted on 01/18/2013 4:52:54 PM PST by left that other site (Worry is the darkroom that developes negatives.)
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To: bigheadfred

Did she pick your FR nick? ;’)


25 posted on 01/18/2013 5:05:49 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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To: left that other site

Probably some international authority will phobid it.


26 posted on 01/18/2013 5:07:45 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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To: jespasinthru

I miss Carl Sagan. He was one of the ultimate visionaries of the last century (the 20th century). I read all of his books, and they were very profound. And he died relatively young. What a shame. What a waste of a Clear Spirit.


27 posted on 01/18/2013 5:10:32 PM PST by jespasinthru (Proud member of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Probably by declaring Martial Law?


28 posted on 01/18/2013 5:16:41 PM PST by left that other site (Worry is the darkroom that developes negatives.)
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To: SunkenCiv

29 posted on 01/18/2013 5:24:14 PM PST by Boogieman
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To: SunkenCiv
Looks like whatever hit it, hit it when it was already in a semi-molten state or whatever hit it was semi-molten.
Almost looks like molten lead or solder that was spread out.
30 posted on 01/18/2013 5:42:00 PM PST by The Cajun (Sarah Palin, Mark Levin......Nuff said.)
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To: The Cajun

The impact delivered a great deal of energy, and there’s a lot of metal (or quartz?) in the body. The dull-looking part of the surface is covered at least a meter deep in micrometeorites and ejecta dust from larger impacts. This suggests that these craters are fairly recent, but as the age of the moon is far from agreed-upon, there’s no way to estimate an actual age for the two large craters shown.


31 posted on 01/18/2013 7:33:53 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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To: Boogieman

I think I’ve dated one or two — or at least I felt the fear.


32 posted on 01/18/2013 7:35:16 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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To: left that other site

No doubt that got its start during some Arean movement.


33 posted on 01/18/2013 7:36:08 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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To: SunkenCiv
The reason I say it looks more like a flow is because of the very low gravity on the small moon.
I think any ejecta dust/rocks from a large impact would have easily reach escape velocity and been on their way, where a molten flow might have stuck to the surface in spite of the nearly nonexistent gravity.
34 posted on 01/18/2013 7:56:19 PM PST by The Cajun (Sarah Palin, Mark Levin......Nuff said.)
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To: The Cajun

The lines look like the result of the lowest-velocity ejecta merely rolling across the surface; in any impact, some goes up and comes back down, some barely leaves the surface, some escapes.


35 posted on 01/18/2013 8:32:37 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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This was a recent reprise, and whaddayaknow, it's back already:
A Celestial Collision · Alaska Science Forum · February 10, 1983 · Larry Gedney · Posted on 09/15/2004 9:04:28 AM PDT · by SunkenCiv -- Early in the evening of June 18, 1178, a group of men near Canterbury, England, stood admiring the sliver of a new moon hanging low in the west. In terms they later described to a monk who recorded their sighting, "Suddenly a flaming torch sprang from the moon, spewing fire, hot coals and sparks." In continuing their description of the event, they reported that "The moon writhed like a wounded snake and finally took on a blackish appearance"... [P]lanetary scientist Jack Hartung of the State University of New York... gathered enough clues to suggest that a large asteroid... might have smacked into the moon just over the horizon on the back side. To test his suspicion, Hartung went to the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, and inspected Russian and American photographs of the moon's back side. Sure enough, in just the right place, he found a remarkably fresh crater, 12 miles across and twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. From it radiated white splatter marks for hundreds of miles... Such an impact, reason astrophysicists, would set the moon to ringing like a gong for thousands of years... At Texas' McDonald Observatory, astronomers Odile Calame and J. Derral Mulholland of the University of Texas find that the surface of the moon moves back and forth fully 80 feet! Such an oscillation clearly implies a collision with something large, sometime within the not-too-distant past, probably within the memory of mankind. The problem is that there is no way to peg the date exactly at 1178.

36 posted on 01/18/2013 8:39:13 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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To: SunkenCiv

37 posted on 01/18/2013 8:48:34 PM PST by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet - Mater tua caligas exercitus gerit ;-{)
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To: varmintman; The Cajun; SunkenCiv; All

My guess is that the shiny flowing looking streaks are molten glass which slopped over the sides.


38 posted on 01/18/2013 10:42:32 PM PST by gleeaikin
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To: gleeaikin
Not saying it was caused by flowing, but really looks like you said, that some highly reflective material *slopped over the sides*.
Especially on the right side where there appears to be some curvature to the ?flow?
39 posted on 01/18/2013 10:53:21 PM PST by The Cajun (Sarah Palin, Mark Levin......Nuff said.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Dat’s Demos Atrocious pun I ever hoid!


40 posted on 01/19/2013 4:43:50 AM PST by left that other site (Worry is the darkroom that developes negatives.)
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