Mars Will Lose Its Largest Moon, But Gain A Ring

Mars Will Lose Its Largest Moon, But Gain A Ring

Mars will lose its largest moon, but gain a ring

Mars’ largest moon, Phobos, is slowly falling toward the planet, but rather than smash into the surface, it likely will be shredded and the pieces strewn about the planet in a ring like the rings encircling Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune.

UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow Benjamin Black and graduate student Tushar Mittal estimate the cohesiveness of Phobos and conclude that it is insufficient to resist the tidal forces that will pull it apart when it gets closer to Mars.

Mars tugs differently on different parts of Phobos. As Phobos gets closer to the planet, the tugs are enough to actually pull the moon apart, the scientists say. This is because Phobos is highly fractured, with lots of pores and rubble. “Dismembering it is analogous to pulling apart a granola bar”, Black said, “scattering crumbs and chunks everywhere.”

Read more about the fate of Phobos

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my possible career choices: cloud flower

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Raf Simons Last Show @ Jil Sander / Raf Simons Last Show @ Dior
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Happy Birthday Carl (1934 - 1996). Your Legacy Continues To Shine.

Happy Birthday Carl (1934 - 1996). Your legacy continues to shine.

9 years ago

Goals:

1. Do science. 2. Advance the human race. 3. Make other people happy.

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Imagine a droplet sitting on a rigid surface spontaneously bouncing up and then continuing to bounce higher after each impact, as if it were on a trampoline. It sounds impossible, but it’s not. There are two key features to making such a trampolining droplet–one is a superhydrophobic surface covered in an array of tiny micropillars and the other is very low air pressure. The low-pressure, low-humidity air around the droplet causes it to vaporize. Inside the micropillar array, this vapor can get trapped by viscosity instead of draining away. The result is an overpressurization beneath the droplet that, if it overcomes the drop’s adhesion, will cause it to leap upward. For more, check out the original research paper or the coverage at Chemistry World.  (Video credit and submission: T. Schutzius et al.)

9 years ago

The mistakes you’ve made do not invalidate everything you say/do/achieve for the rest of your life.

(via michael-julian)


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9 years ago

Talk with people who make you see the world differently.

(via thategyptianqueen)

9 years ago

A mathematician, a physicist, and an engineer were in a hotel for a convention.

Then, in the middle of the night for no apparent reason, a fire breaks out in the engineer’s wastebasket. The engineer rushes over to the bathroom, empties out the ice bucket, fills it with water and pours it into the trash can, dousing the fire. Satisfied that the problem was solved, the engineer goes back to sleep.

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Finally, a fire breaks out in the mathematician’s room. The mathematician rushes to the bathroom, sees the ice bucket, sees a cup, sees the water faucet. Satisfied that the problem could be solved, he goes back to sleep.


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9 years ago

calculus gothic

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-You have been scribbling the integral symbol and the summation symbol for so long. You can’t write 3′s or capital S’s normally anymore. It is a reflex, muscle memory.

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theidlerhour - Bricolage Brain
Bricolage Brain

"To awaken my spirit through hard work and dedicate my life to knowledge... What do you seek?"

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