{"id":18866,"date":"2017-07-20T20:35:48","date_gmt":"2017-07-20T12:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/phobos-photobombs-mars-in-hubble-view\/"},"modified":"2017-07-20T20:35:48","modified_gmt":"2017-07-20T12:35:48","slug":"phobos-photobombs-mars-in-hubble-view","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/phobos-photobombs-mars-in-hubble-view\/","title":{"rendered":"Phobos photobombs Mars in Hubble view"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_350307\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-350307\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-350307\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/170720-hubble-mars-630x504.jpg\" alt=\"Mars and Phobos\" width=\"630\" height=\"504\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/170720-hubble-mars-630x504.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/170720-hubble-mars-768x614.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/170720-hubble-mars.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-350307\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This multiple-exposure photo shows 22 minutes\u2019 worth of Phobos\u2019 orbit around Mars. (NASA \/ ESA \/ STScI Photo \/ Z. Levay)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Leave it to tiny Phobos to horn in on Mars\u2019 glory in an image captured by the Hubble Space Telescope.<\/p>\n<p>The view of the Red Planet and the larger of its two moons, released today, is actually a testament to the orbiting observatory\u2019s sharper vision.<\/p>\n<p>Phobos is an irregular hunk of rock and ice, measuring no more than 16.5 miles in diameter. It\u2019s small enough to sit comfortably inside the Beltway in Washington, D.C. (although residents of the nation\u2019s capital would be none too comfortable).<\/p>\n<p>Despite its status as one of the solar system\u2019s smallest moons, Hubble\u2019s Wide Field Camera 3 could pick out Phobos easily against the black background of space in a series of images acquired over the course of 22 minutes on May 12, 2016.<\/p>\n<p>At the time, Mars was 50 million miles from Earth.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Phobos Photobombs Hubble\u2019s Picture of Mars\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/J7Cumuf_5CY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Scientists were actually focusing on Mars when Hubble made its observations. Having Phobos in the picture was a bonus, as the Baltimore-based Space Telescope Science Institute notes in today\u2019s image advisory.<\/p>\n<p>Phobos is often seen as a potential destination for the first crews heading to Mars and its moons. Its low gravity would make it easier for spaceships to land and take off again. Two years ago, a blueprint for Red Planet exploration titled \u201cHumans Orbiting Mars\u201d laid out a schedule for getting astronauts to Phobos by 2033, as a warmup for Mars surface operations beginning in 2039.<\/p>\n<p>Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin is a Phobos fan, partly because it\u2019d make a great staging ground for trips down to Mars, but also because of a mysterious monolith&nbsp;on its surface. \u201cWhen people find out about that, they are going to say, \u2018Who put that there?&#8217;\u201d Aldrin said in 2009.<\/p>\n<p>Hubble\u2019s latest picture won\u2019t clear up that mystery, but it serves to highlight the appeal of Mars and its moons. It also serves as an opportunity to head off false claims that Mars could ever look as big as our own moon in earthly skies \u2013&nbsp;a bit of fake news that seems to find its way onto the internet every August.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This multiple-exposure photo shows 22 minutes\u2019 worth of Phobos\u2019 orbit around Mars. (NASA \/ ESA \/ STScI Photo \/ Z. Levay) Leave it to tiny Phobos to horn in on Mars\u2019 glory in an image captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. The view of the Red Planet and the larger of its two moons, released [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4259,898,367,2317],"class_list":["post-18866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-hubble","tag-hubble-space-telescope","tag-mars","tag-phobos"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18866"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18866\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}