MRO image of Phobos shows artifact!

Whats casting this very long shadow on the rim of the crater in this picture?

It's very bright and very tall.

Some kind of tower or gantry?

Ideas?

wide view:


closer:


zoom:

It surely is something alright. What? Your guess is as good as mine...better maybe, 'cause I've not got a clue.

Interesting.

Could it be remnants of one of the lost space probes from recent attempts? I pretend no knowledge of this stuff. I look forward to reading the thoughts.

reply to post by seagull

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Another oddity is its reflective enough to illuminate the dark area immediately to its left, that is casued by the shadow cast by the opposite wall of the crater.

Well found - deservedly starred and flagged.

As a habitual debunker ( ) I haven't really got a clue but it does appear to be a highly reflective object on the surface of Phobos.

Only possiblity I can think of is, as seagull suggests, a probe of some sort

(the triangular shadow isn't necessarily indicative of the object's actual shape)

Nice find!

I'm doubtful that it's a crashed probe though, look at the shape and size of it. It has a tooth like shape to it, not at all crushed in any way which you would come to expect if something slammed into the ground at high speed.

It also looks fairly large. Well, it has to be I guess, to be visible so distinctly from such a distance.

The fact that it's illuminating the area to the left is quite interesting as well. It's either naturally reflective and simply reflecting the light from whatever took the photograph, or it's illuminating itself.

I eagerly await the experts on this one.

reply to post by darkbluesky

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Do you have a link? I'd like to see it for myself. Not doubting you, the more I look, the weirder it gets...

I'm generally skeptical, but this is truely strange. Where are the experts on photographs when you need 'em...


[edit on 5/6/2008 by seagull]

Based on the long axis length of Phobos (28 km) I estimate the object is approximately 50 meters across at its base.

Big, for a probe of terrestrial origin.

reply to post by darkbluesky

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Way too big, we've never sent anything into space that big in one piece. Apart from boosters and shuttles of course.

This could get either get mighty interesting or mighty disappointing.

reply to post by seagull

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LINK

i don't see that as illumination, but as a powder, or gas. One thought I have is that the object is part of the moon, and then something scraped off the dark dust to reveal a bright layer underneath. The Spirit Rover on Mars has discovered white soil just underneath the surface, so maybe the same phenomenon is happening here.

But this just sort of moves the question around - If this is the case, then what caused this much dust to be scraped off of this object?

reply to post by darkbluesky

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Thanks. That "whateveritis" was imediately obvious. I was very surprised at that...

Very large too, if the shadow is anything to go by. Did I miss it? Or was there no comment on this in the press release...strange that...

Not a coverup, or they'd have airbrushed the photo, or not released it at all. I find it odd.

Wow look at all the tracks, meteor craters and striations all running in the same general direction? What is up with that?

Great find!

Wonder what the green stuff is that's glowing like Kryptonite?

The artifact looks like something that might have been exposed from under the surface after an impact.

I normally hate these photo threads as usually it is something ordinary that just looks a bit odd. This, however, is definitely odd and a good find

What does it for me is when you trace the shadow and the direction of light to the other side of the crater there is nothing overly angular on that side. There is a definite angular shape to the object as below, and most notably in the black section at the bottom of the object.

The raised section around the object makes it look like it is not an impact or certainly not at speed. Yet the back side of the object seems to have a very neat circular ridge.

Very interesting!

This is quite cool look at 10368 and the same ground depression/crater is completely lit and the same object is there but other smaller ones appear littered around also. Looks like a bunch of huge white boulders...maybe ice?

photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov...


Cropped Photojournal tiff image converted to jpg no additional mods
image source: http://byfiles.storage.live.com/y1pNLm5DKBO98R7fTi1kytRSWOJGnc53VToczp5jbtk9mYB8t7-avpUyUhhXcXCF-kHAKzK3UZuEww

Darkbluesky....

What a find you have here Starred and flagged...never would I have expected something to be found on this moon, truly amazing and odd at that!

Thanks for the enhancement Shere Khaan....that gives me the chills, not sure why, guess I was expecting an odd rock formation when I first clicked on this thread...I am at a loss to even guess what that is

Here's my 1/4 of a penny.
I looked at the pic and noticed other objects around it with a lighter colored top, but didn't catch the light as much. It looks like there's build up around the base as well, like a collection of sand or dust around it.
I'm not a professional, of coure. most likely the next guy in line will say something that automatically discredits this, but it looks like a brightly covered top of a hill. In fact, it looks like a snowcovered mount or hill. the other objects around it are apparently not as high, and apparently don't reflect as much of the light.

reply to post by RuneSpider

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I concur. If you look closely around the object in question, you see other "hills" that are covered, and project a shadow, though not to the extent that the big one does.

To me anyway, this is just a really cool looking hill. If you look to the SE corner of the image, the large crater that forms Phobos's signature appearance has a white snow-like powder over it's surface. This appears to be the same material that's on all of the hills in the image.

Just my opinion though...

TheBorg

reply to post by darkbluesky

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Made little tunings and this is what I got; it seems natural formation. Please have a look. In the second picture I guess some thing is illuminated or airbrushed? or as some one said white sand? Let us wait for the experts to have a look. where is Internos?

The Rebels are there