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Mars Curiosity Rover Shoots Video of Phobos Moon Rising

Posted by samzenpus on from the moons-of-mars dept.

An anonymous reader writes "This movie clip shows Phobos, the larger of the two moons of Mars, passing overhead, as observed by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity in a series of images centered straight overhead starting shortly after sunset. Phobos first appears near the lower center of the view and moves toward the top of the view. The clip runs at accelerated speed; the amount of time covered in it is about 27 minutes"

67 comments

  1. spectacular ... not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    Frankly, I'd hoped for a little more.

    1. Re:spectacular ... not by Dexter+Herbivore · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Either your expectations are too high, or your sense of wonder is too low, to get much out of this. Personally, I loved it.

    2. Re:spectacular ... not by Freshly+Exhumed · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Either your expectations are too high, or your sense of wonder is too low, to get much out of this. Personally, I loved it.

      Sigh... Louis C.K. was correct, "Everything is amazing and nobody is happy": http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8m5d0_everything-is-amazing-and-nobody-i_fun

      --
      I deny that I have not avoided attaining the opposite of that which I do not want.
    3. Re:spectacular ... not by multiben · · Score: 1

      Why don't you post *your* video of Phobos to show NASA how it should be done?

    4. Re:spectacular ... not by oobayly · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I think the problem is that unless you're very familiar with Mars and its satellites it's a little bit of a let down to see a group of pixels move across the screen, rather than the stunning moon rise we see regularly here on earth. I know I was.

      It's not that I have lost any sense of wonderment, it's just that my lack of knowledge allowed me to build up a mental image of a visibly cratered moon rising over a dusty red planet's horizon. Then I searched for photos of Phobos and realised that that was pretty dumb.

      Compare this to my awe at watching the transit of Venus (online, it was too cloudy where I was in the UK to see the exit), and all I was watching was a black circle move in front of the sun, but that was how I expected it to be.

    5. Re:spectacular ... not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      To be fair, it is a little disappointing. I mean, I could have taken a much better video than this. Except for the whole "having to take the video from fucking Mars" part.

    6. Re:spectacular ... not by Ukab+the+Great · · Score: 2

      It's only a model.

    7. Re:spectacular ... not by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

      As often, spectacularly disappointed by Curiosity.

      --
      Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
    8. Re:spectacular ... not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, a movie of a moonrise from a distant planet...

    9. Re:spectacular ... not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Nice fallacy.

    10. Re:spectacular ... not by serviscope_minor · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I think the problem is that unless you're very familiar with Mars and its satellites it's a little bit of a let down to see a group of pixels move across the screen, rather than the stunning moon rise we see regularly here on earth. I know I was.

      Nope. If you stop and think about it for even 1 second you get this:

      It's a moonrise ON ANOTHER PLANET!

      ANOTHER PLANET!!!!

      A MOONRISE ON ANOTHER PLANET!!!!

      Basically if those words alone aren't enough then you have no soul. And I don't even believe in the existence of souls.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    11. Re:spectacular ... not by king+neckbeard · · Score: 1

      Yeah, the difference in size makes quite a difference, so if you only intend to watch moonrises on one planets, Mars may not be your best choice. Then again, Mars has two moons, so that could present some very interesting visuals. It's also important to note that this camera had to be able to survive in space, was constrained by other limitations of the flight, and wasn't under direct human operation. If we could get manned missions to Mars and could bypass many of the current concerns, we could get much more compelling footage.

      --
      This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    12. Re:spectacular ... not by C0R1D4N · · Score: 1

      In an astronomical scale Mars is hardly 'distant'

    13. Re:spectacular ... not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      My video:
      o
      o
      o
      o
      o
      o
      o
      o

    14. Re:spectacular ... not by Cryacin · · Score: 1

      I suffer from PhobosPhobia you insensitive clod!

      --
      Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
    15. Re:spectacular ... not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Nothing short of sighting God himself would impress me at 2 pixels wide. I just can't get into the "that's mindblowing" frame of mind at that resolution. And we've been able to take pictures from space for a long time now.

    16. Re:spectacular ... not by taylorius · · Score: 1

      In an astronomical scale Mars is hardly 'distant'

      Hardly relevant. The point is, that in a "mobile ground based remotely-controlled-by-humans camera" scale, it most definitely IS distant.

      I'm not sure what is more annoying - dismissing the video because it doesn't look impressive enough, or dismissing it because it's not much of an achievement anyway. All I know is, anyone not impressed / moved by this does not understand it.

    17. Re:spectacular ... not by C0R1D4N · · Score: 1

      We have been to Mars a number of times now. It is time to land on Europa

    18. Re:spectacular ... not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      General Life Protip: People who generally describe everything in absolutes and black-and-white scenarios, are usually very very likely to be morons too dumb to see that it's not that simple. This does not exclude this Protip.

      Also, I think if you're still fascinated by boring gray rocks that all look alike, you haven't seen *shit*. Any stone pit is more "fascinating" than that. You've seen one gray rock you've seen 'em all. And to any being with a healthy brain everything that's not new anymore, and also not a basic instinct, automatically becomes boring. Only people with no memory are fascinated by the same lame thing over and over again.

      Maybe you should go out more often. There are *vastly* more amazing things out there. Go the other path; say hello to that unknown girl there; buy something else than plain vanilla ice cream; fap with the other hand... you know... explore reality for a change.

      Suddenly "yet another gray rock in space" will become veery boooring. Especially if you have seen a thousand of them.

    19. Re:spectacular ... not by Muad'Dave · · Score: 5, Informative

      You're not too far off the mark. Phobos and Deimos were named after fear and dread, respectively.

      --
      Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
    20. Re:spectacular ... not by taylorius · · Score: 1

      I agree with you that a mission to Europa is DEVOUTLY to be desired - let us hope that Europa Clipper goes ahead! However, that surely doesn't make film of an extraterrestrial moonrise any less awe inspiring - and for what it is, not how it appears.

    21. Re:spectacular ... not by Cryacin · · Score: 1

      Really... we have to explain this to the slashdot crowd?

      --
      Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
    22. Re:spectacular ... not by buzzfocus23 · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      what Marie responded I'm amazed that a person able to earn $5903 in a few weeks on the computer. did you read this web page http://www.wep6.com/

    23. Re:spectacular ... not by buzzfocus23 · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      what Marie responded I'm amazed that a person able to earn $5903 in a few weeks on the computer. did you read this web page http://www.wep6.com/

    24. Re:spectacular ... not by Teancum · · Score: 1

      It should really fill you with a sense of wonder when you think about the Earth's Moon, realizing that it is really a dwarf planet all to itself and in fact one of the largest "natural satellites" in the Solar System... on the same general size as the Galilean moons of Jupiter or even Titan and Triton. Phobos and Deimos really are not much more than captured asteroids. Indeed I think the Moon should be considered as a planet... as much as Pluto, Vesta, and Ceres currently are considered as such by the IAU (the "dwarf" status still makes them planets). As such, when you see the Moon rising in the night sky here on the Earth, you really are looking at another planet that happens to be quite close to us... close enough to even see surface details without a telescope.

      That said, Phobos has some interesting properties as a moon. It can only be seen on Mars at latitudes fairly close to the equator as it travels at a comparatively low altitude.... something more akin to the altitude that the International Space Station travels here around the Earth. Even more odd though is that it "rises" in the west and "sets" in the east as its orbital period is less than a day, thus it would also have a "lunar eclipse" every time it completes an orbit. A really interesting phenomena is a transit of Phobos from Mars... essentially an eclipse of the Sun, but Phobos doesn't quite cover the full disc of the sun because it is much smaller. Again, these transits happen every orbit somewhere on Mars.

      As you pointed out, Phobos would be seen as something much smaller. If I had to guess, it would be roughly the size of the Sea of Tranquility, in terms of the visual appearance from the surface of Mars compared to what you see in the night sky here on the Earth. It would still be something you would notice in the night sky on Mars and I think if people ever do make the trip to Mars, seeing Phobos would be something people would enjoy watching and taking the time to look at if the opportunity came up.

    25. Re:spectacular ... not by Penguinisto · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I for one was disappointed, but only because I fully expected to see evidence of leather goddesses.

      Damnit.

      OTOH, the sense of wonder was less to do with eye-candy, and more to do with mentally placing myself on that remote plain, watching the thing rise. Sort of like how I felt the first time I saw a satellite pass over on a clear, moonless evening in the country.

      Sure, it's just a dot, but as someone elsewhere in here said, when you know a little about what you're watching, that little moving dot becomes pretty fricking amazing.

      --
      Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
    26. Re:spectacular ... not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is so true as well.

      I mean, I can't be the only one that stands there when making, say, toast, and think "...damn, this is actually a thing, just imagine if this was a thousand years ago"?
      I even know how it all works down to the atom, that knowledge alone built upon by many hundreds of people over not even a particularly long period either.
      Never mind what life was like in making food a thousand years ago, think of what it will be like in the next 100, 500, even 1000.
      In 100 years, we could be printing masses of our food at home or central facilities for those that can't afford one yet. 500, we could probably even have some sort of replicator magic doodaa thing that harry potters food in to existence or something.

      I'm still amazed the Universe even created such tiny and such massive structures, and they all seemingly follow the same or similar patterns (such as huge galactic structures looking similar to neural clumps in the brain, or absolutely tiny little water spirals going down your plugin to a tornado so huge it could consume Earth 3 times and still look like a pretty girl in her twenties)
      Yet we still can't figure out how to link them. One day.

    27. Re:spectacular ... not by omnichad · · Score: 1

      500, we could probably even have some sort of replicator magic doodaa thing that harry potters food in to existence or something.

      Food is the first of the five Principal Exceptions to Gamp’s Law of Elemental Transfiguration. It might be magic, but it isn't Harry Potter's magic.

    28. Re: spectacular ... not by Gilmoure · · Score: 1

      It's Scotty magic. He's a whiz with the replicators.

      --
      I drank what? -- Socrates
    29. Re:spectacular ... not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's more likely that you are just easily amused...like a child.

    30. Re:spectacular ... not by ifiwereasculptor · · Score: 2

      I think the problem is that unless you're very familiar with Mars and its satellites it's a little bit of a let down to see a group of pixels move across the screen

      What are you talking about? When I first saw Phobos being rendered before my eyes, even if at a shoddier pixel count than one would like, I was instantly amazed. The sense of wonder took whole weeks to dissipate, and got a second wind when I reached the Cyberdemon. And I knew absolutely jack about Mars back then.

    31. Re:spectacular ... not by vikingpower · · Score: 1

      I would go for the lack of sense of wonder... Mooms risins on snother worl wow.d.

      --
      Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
    32. Re:spectacular ... not by vikingpower · · Score: 1

      Friggin blackberry...

      --
      Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
    33. Re:spectacular ... not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      OMG. I still have a copy of that game!

  2. Horizon by noh8rz9 · · Score: -1

    I would try to get a horizon shot, with both moons in the frame. And do another selfie like that pic last year. That was awesome!

    --
    let's have a conversation! let me know what you think.
  3. Oh no! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Shoot it down! Shoot it down!!!

  4. moonrise during the day? by Razgorov+Prikazka · · Score: 1

    It seems that this rising happened during the 'day'. Sometimes our moon does that but just before I watched this video I expected it to be 'night'.
    Anyway, nice one!
    Probably Mars wont experience a lot of tidal forces from such a tiny rock ;-)

    --
    rm -rf --no-preserve-root / ...and let /dev/null sort them out...
    1. Re:moonrise during the day? by loufoque · · Score: 0

      The moon rises within the day on Earth too.

    2. Re:moonrise during the day? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Did you actually read the post you replied to?

    3. Re:moonrise during the day? by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      Did you actually read the post you replied to?

      did you guys read the article on the site this was spam advert for? "This movie clip shows Phobos, the larger of the two moons of Mars, passing overhead, as observed by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity in a series of images centered straight overhead starting shortly after sunset. Phobos first appears near the lower center of the view and moves toward the top of the view. The clip runs at accelerated speed; the amount of time covered in it is about 27 minutes. - See more at: http://spaceindustrynews.com/mars-curiosity-rover-shoots-video-of-phobos-moon-rising-video/3694/#sthash.S2LW6qw2.dpuf" yeah, the headline is there "rising" as well. and this is after sunset. but it is directly overhead, it doesn't show it "rising" in the sense most people would think moonrise to be.. that it rises from the horizon.

      pure tripe, for a moving dot.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  5. Business Loans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    Interesting content, finance for starting small business is very important, I find this share very crucial because I like run my enterprise soon and I'm sure it will obviously be complicated.
    Business Loans

  6. Error in headline by FrostedWheat · · Score: 1

    a series of images centered straight overhead starting shortly after sunset

    It's not rising, it's already overhead.

  7. MRO's images are totally awesome by Morgaine · · Score: 5, Informative

    For more immediate visual gratification appreciated by a wider audience, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter provides wonderfully detailed images of Phobos.

    That was the instrument that caught this mind-numbing image of the Phoenix lander as it was descending on its parachute. Words are really quite superfluous.

    --
    "The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
    1. Re:MRO's images are totally awesome by mutube · · Score: 1

      Thanks for posting that third link - I hadn't seen that image before. As you say, words can't do it justice. Incredible.

      --
      Python coder | PyQt Applications | Writer
    2. Re:MRO's images are totally awesome by EvilSS · · Score: 1

      For more immediate visual gratification appreciated by a wider audience, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter provides wonderfully detailed images of Phobos.

      That was the instrument that caught this mind-numbing image of the Phoenix lander as it was descending on its parachute. Words are really quite superfluous.

      That's a great image, I wouldn't consider it mind-numbing at all.

      --
      I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
    3. Re:MRO's images are totally awesome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Many things can cause "mind-numbing", not only dullness by a long shot, and Merriam-Webster doesn't seem to capture them.

      Judging by the appreciative tone in the post, the parent probably meant "so incredible to leave you speechless in awe", as if the mind were thunderstruck and left numbed or otherwise incapacitated by the astonishment. "Stunning" conveys the same idea.

    4. Re:MRO's images are totally awesome by EvilSS · · Score: 1

      I'm pretty sure mind-numbing is universally accepted to be dull,boring, or tedious. If you can cite a reference showing it being used otherwise I'd love to see it.

      --
      I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
    5. Re:MRO's images are totally awesome by Caesar+Tjalbo · · Score: 1

      Mind-blowing.

      --
      "I'm not much interested in interoperability. I want substitutability. I want to be able to throw your software out."
    6. Re:MRO's images are totally awesome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Even if you consider M-W's definition to be less than all-inclusive, they do list these as antonyms of "mind-numbing":

      "absorbing, engaging, engrossing, gripping, interesting, intriguing, involving, riveting"

    7. Re:MRO's images are totally awesome by Teancum · · Score: 1

      Perhaps the words "mind blowing" should have been used instead. As for a reference showing it being used above... try to read the context of what was being said rather than trying to be a jackass and a grammar Nazi for a change. Capturing an image of a flying vehicle in the atmosphere of another planet as seen by yet another spacecraft on an unrelated mission really is an incredible accomplishment and something that deserves a little bit of awe rather than trying to smack down the person making the observation and mentioning that accomplishment and image. That sure as hell isn't "dull, boring, or tedious" except trying to respond to a troll... which certainly is.

    8. Re:MRO's images are totally awesome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      First, it's not being a grammar Nazi to point out that a word is being used for the exact opposite of its intent. That would be a "vocabulary Nazi".

      Second, read the rest of the thread. There are quite a few people who think "mind-numbing" in its correct definition is a very apt description.

    9. Re:MRO's images are totally awesome by EvilSS · · Score: 1

      For the record, I am very capable of both reading the intent and being a jackass grammar Nazi. I'm usually forgiving but if you are going to follow up superfluous with mind-numbing, when you mean the exact opposite, then you open the door to a "WTF?" response.

      Maybe, however, you have a point. So in the spirit of mending my jackass ways I'm not even going to bring up what a mess this "sentence" is: "That sure as hell isn't "dull, boring, or tedious" except trying to respond to a troll... which certainly is."

      --
      I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
  8. That's no moon!!! by loufoque · · Score: 1

    Obligatory Star Wars reference.

  9. FAKE ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I can see nothing but pixels.

  10. What's the big, bright glow in the... by Nutria · · Score: 2

    lower center of the move? The Sun? (This was supposed to be just after sunset.)

    --
    "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
    1. Re:What's the big, bright glow in the... by kimvette · · Score: 1

      Question: does our sky go dark like flipping a switch the instant the sun is "below" the horizon, or does the atmosphere scatter enough light to light the sky for an hour after sunset?

      Now that you arrive at the answer to that question, answer this one: does Mars have an appreciable atmosphere capable of raleigh scattering, or is it so tenuous (like our Moon's) that it is little more than a few particles and gas so thin that there is no measurable pressure - and barely qualifies as gas, but more of random particles suspended by electrostatic forces, resulting in very little scattering of light?

      --
      The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
    2. Re:What's the big, bright glow in the... by Nutria · · Score: 1

      Atmospheric scattering was actually the first thing I thought of.

      According to Wikipedia and a calculator, Martian air pressure is 1/159,489th that of Earth's (I already knew that it was a tiny fraction), so that's why I questioned how much scattering could happen.

      --
      "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
  11. KSP by OptimalCynic · · Score: 3, Funny

    And if you want to reenact that for yourself, get a copy of Kerbal Space Program and get launching.

    1. Re:KSP by oobayly · · Score: 1

      I would, but I'm being too anal about getting my ship put together in orbit. Jebediah's getting bloody impatient in the hitch-hiker module.

  12. Our tax dollars wasted yet again... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yep, deep recession, no bottom yet in the economy, manufacturing pretty much dead, in debt to China so deep that the only way out might be to cede them land, and the US government still wastes billions on these boondoggles.

    How about not bothering with the frills, but spending some to lure businesses back to the US? Businesses are the ones that should be sending these pictures back to Earth, not debt-ridden governments on the verge of collapse like the Soviet Union. Maybe even do something to get banks lending again domestically rather than feeling safer staying overseas. Or perhaps fixing the US's broken credit rating? Maybe even following like Venezuela and removing guns from Joe Sixpack to get us off the top of the murder statistics list?

    1. Re: Our tax dollars wasted yet again... by Gilmoure · · Score: 1

      Derp.

      --
      I drank what? -- Socrates
    2. Re:Our tax dollars wasted yet again... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Um, recession ended a few years ago. The economy has shown improvement over the last 3 months in unemployment, the stock market, and consumer spending. We are still the world's largest manufacturer, with many companies building factories and foreign companies returning manufacturing here, and China owns far less debt than Japan and France (and all foreign holdings is a small fraction of total debt).
      Businesses exist for profit. There is no current economic motivation for a business to take pictures on Mars...so it is done by government for the good of man. NASA creates a lot of jobs and technologies that private businesses would not have as there was no profit motive.
      Did you really say Venezuela is a country to emulate? You realize they confiscated guns to prevent armed protests for Chavez's reelection right? Might want to look at La Guardia Nacional en Venezuela and see what they do...

  13. clickberry.tv embedded iframe link is useless by mark-t · · Score: 1

    I had to manually scrape the html to find a link to the actual video.

    They claim to support IE, Chrome, Firefox, and Opera, but somehow I think what they really mean is that they only support Mac and Windows.

    --
    File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
  14. DOOM! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So does this mean I can pick up a BFG and start fragging some cacodemons?

  15. Curiosity is still working? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    i knew one of the Mars rovers was still working, but i wasn't sure which one was. thanks for posting the link to the video.

  16. Obligatory: by sobolwolf · · Score: 1

    that ain't no moon...

  17. I wonder... by jennatalia · · Score: 0

    ...what the moonrise looks like on Uranus?