Astronomy:Phobos monolith

Short description: Rock on Phobos

The Phobos monolith (right of center, casting long shadow) as taken by the Mars Global Surveyor (MOC Image 55103, 1998).

The location of the monolith (HiRISE image PIA10368)

The Phobos monolith is a large rock on the surface of Mars's moon Phobos. It is a boulder about 85 m (279 ft) across and 90 m (300 ft) tall. A monolith is a geological feature consisting of a single massive piece of rock. Monoliths also occur naturally on Earth, but it has been suggested that the Phobos monolith may be a piece of impact ejecta. The puzzling thing is tall rectangular pieces of stone can not be classed as boulders, so there is a question to be asked as to its real origin. The monolith is a bright object near Stickney crater, described as a "building sized" boulder, which casts a prominent shadow. It was discovered by Efrain Palermo, who did extensive surveys of Martian probe imagery, and later confirmed by Lan Fleming, an imaging sub-contractor at NASA Johnson Space Center.

The general vicinity of the monolith is a proposed landing site by Optech and the Mars Institute, for a robotic mission to Phobos known as PRIME (Phobos Reconnaissance and International Mars Exploration). The PRIME mission would be composed of an orbiter and lander, and each would carry four instruments designed to study various aspects of Phobos' geology. At present, PRIME has not been funded and does not have a projected launch date. Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin has spoken about the Phobos monolith and his support for a mission to Phobos.

The object appears in Mars Global Surveyor images SPS252603 and SPS255103, dated 1998. The object is unrelated to another monolith located on the surface of Mars, which NASA noted as an example of a common surface feature in that region.

In fiction

The Phobos monolith features in the 2012 science-fiction novel Blue Remembered Earth, wherein its surface has been entirely carved by visiting astronauts into the semblance of a wrecked spaceship.

The Phobos monolith is also an important plot point in Dietmar Wehr science-fiction novel The Daedalus Mission: A Battle For Mars, where it appears to be an artificial construct. The monolith is a source of conflict between private companies and China.

The Phobos monolith is also important in the Plot of "Doom - Knee-Deep In The Dead," a science-fiction novel written by Dafydd ab Hugh and Brad Linaweaver. The DOOM series of novels is "based on DOOM from id software." The back of the book reads, "The Gates were there on Phobos when mankind first arrived. Inert, unyielding, impossibly alien constructs, for twenty years they sat lifeless, mute testaments of their long-vanished creators, their secrets hidden. Then one day, they sprang to life . . ."

The debut studio album by The Claypool Lennon Delirium, consisting of American multi-instrumentalists Sean Lennon and Primus's Les Claypool, released on June 3, 2016, is called Monolith of Phobos.

See also

• Caves of Mars Project
• Cydonia (Mars)
• Libya Montes
• Mars Global Surveyor
• Mars monolith
• Monolith (Space Odyssey)

External links

• USGS Mars Global Surveyor MOC Image 55103 - Browse Page Monolith Zoom
• Analysis in year 2000 by Lan Fleming of SPS252603 and SPS255103
• Phobos in general
  • Phobos Profile by NASA's Solar System Exploration
  • HiRISE images of Phobos
  • Spacecraft images of Phobos from nineplanets
  • USGS Phobos nomenclature
  • Asaph Hall and the Moons of Mars
  • Flight around Phobos (movie)
  • Animation of Phobos
  • Mars Pareidolia
  • Palermo's Phobos Anomalies