by FieryIce » Tue Dec 05, 2006 10:48 pm
You're forgetting a crucial fact about Phobos, it's density.
To quote from page four, Artificial Satellities of Mars, I. S. Shklovskiy, Riddle of the Martian Satellites, by I. S. Shklovskiy, FTD-TT-62-488/1, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base FOIA 88CG/SCCM
"Question: How do you explain these anomalies?
Answer: after analysis and rejection of all imaginable causes for the slowing down of Phobos I arrived at the following conclusion: most likely, it is the braking action of the upper, highly rarefied layers of the atmosphere that plays the determining part. But, in order to make this braking action so significant, and taking into account the extremely rarefied Martian atmosphere at this altitude, Phobos should have very small mass, i.e., very low average density, approximately one thousand times smaller than the density of water.
But can a continuous solid have such low density, probably smaller than that of air? Of course not! However, we can imagine that Phobos is not coherent but is rather a cloud of minute dust particles separated by appreciable distances from one another. But such a cloud, as calculations showed, would inevitably spread along its entire trajectory, changing into something resembling the famous ring of Saturn. There is only one way in which the requirements of coherence, constancy of shape of Phobos, and its extremely small average density can be reconciled. We must assume that Phobos is a hollow, empty body, resembling an empty tin can.
Well, can a natural celestial body be hollow? Never! Therefore, Phobos must have an artificial origin and be an artificial Martian satellite. The peculiar properties of Deimos, though less pronounced than those of Phobos, also point toward an artificial origin."
You're forgetting a crucial fact about Phobos, it's density.
To quote from page four, Artificial Satellities of Mars, I. S. Shklovskiy, Riddle of the Martian Satellites, by I. S. Shklovskiy, FTD-TT-62-488/1, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base FOIA 88CG/SCCM
"Question: How do you explain these anomalies?
Answer: after analysis and rejection of all imaginable causes for the slowing down of Phobos I arrived at the following conclusion: most likely, it is the braking action of the upper, highly rarefied layers of the atmosphere that plays the determining part. But, in order to make this braking action so significant, and taking into account the extremely rarefied Martian atmosphere at this altitude, Phobos should have very small mass, i.e., very low average density, approximately one thousand times smaller than the density of water.
But can a continuous solid have such low density, probably smaller than that of air? Of course not! However, we can imagine that Phobos is not coherent but is rather a cloud of minute dust particles separated by appreciable distances from one another. But such a cloud, as calculations showed, would inevitably spread along its entire trajectory, changing into something resembling the famous ring of Saturn. There is only one way in which the requirements of coherence, constancy of shape of Phobos, and its extremely small average density can be reconciled. We must assume that Phobos is a hollow, empty body, resembling an empty tin can.
Well, can a natural celestial body be hollow? Never! Therefore, Phobos must have an artificial origin and be an artificial Martian satellite. The peculiar properties of Deimos, though less pronounced than those of Phobos, also point toward an artificial origin."