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Mars Express Captures Phobos and Deimos

Posted by Soulskill on from the holding-for-ransom dept.

westtxfun writes "The Mars Express Orbiter captured a very cool movie of Phobos and Deimos on Nov 5. Besides the 'wow factor,' the images will be used to refine models of the moons' orbits. The orbiter has also captured high resolution images of Phobos back in July. 'The images were acquired with the Super Resolution Channel (SRC) of the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC). The camera took 130 images of the moons on 5 November at 9:14 CET in a span of 1.5 minutes at intervals of 1s, speeding up to 0.5-s intervals toward the end. The image resolution is 110 m/pixel for Phobos and 240 m/pixel for Deimos — Deimos was more than twice as far from the camera. '"

2 of 84 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Ask slashdot by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Informative

    Please, forgive my ignorance (physics is not my field): What orbit model is going to be refined? I've always thought that planetary movements were resolved centuries ago

    Solar radiation and the solar "wind" has an effect on smaller bodies, such as those moons. The effects vary depending on the color, composition, and texture of the moons' surfaces. We need better models to know their impact on orbits. Relativity may also have a very minor impact on orbital changes.
         

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    Table-ized A.I.
  2. action films by f3r · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's sad that we are so used to action and sci-fi films with amazing simulations of astonishing things, that when it comes to the real one (a piece of rock which really exists up there, and IS cool) we think we are seeing the intro for a 1985 asteroid game, and think for ourselves 'where are the explosions? I myself had to do an effort to rationally avoid that thinking and covince myself of the real coolness of the thing.