Mysterious Mars moon ‘monolith’ worth examining, physicist says
Mysterious Mars moon ‘monolith’ worth examining, physicist says
(NewsNation) — The tantalizing prospect of inspecting a mysterious monolith on the surface of Mars moon Phobos was proposed earlier this century but never took off — to the disappointment of theoretical physicist Maaneli “Max” Derakhshani.
The 300-foot-tall anomaly, which stands in stark relief to its lunar surroundings, has intrigued observers for years. More than a few have likened the object to the iconic “monolith” from “2001: A Space Odyssey.” In that 1968 film, it was a sort of alarm mechanism on Earth’s moon to alert aliens about human progress.
NASA has classified the Phobos monolith as a boulder. But Derakhshani notes the space agency and the SETI Institute — a private organization looking for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence in the universe — were supportive of an effort in the early-2000s to send a robotic lander to the unusual feature of Phobos to take a physical sample for analysis.
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Proponents at the time tried to downplay the potential mission as, “Oh, this is purely geological study,” Derakhshani told “Reality Check with Ross Coulthart” recently.
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Detail of a monolith-shaped object on Phobos, a moon of Mars. (NASA)
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Phobos. Phobos is one of the moons of the planet Mars, and has a heavily cratered surface. Artist NASA. (Photo by Heritage Space/Heritage Images/Getty Images)
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2001 A Space Odyssey panoramic image of astronauts on the moon surface gazing into hangar containing the monolith in a scene from the classic Stanley Kubrick 1968 sci-fi movie. (Photo by Screen Archives/Getty Images)
“But I don’t think SETI would be interested in this, and I don’t think they would single out this obviously geologically anomalous object on Phobos, if there wasn’t a greater interest beyond mere geology,” he added.
Legendary astronaut Buzz Aldrin was also intrigued about the monolith on Phobos and endorsed the proposal.
“When people find out about that, they’re going to say, ‘Who put that there?'” Aldrin told C-SPAN in 2009. “Well, the universe put it there — if you choose, God put it there.”
The mission to Phobos did not receive funding.
“It’s still just a proposal out there,” Derakhshani said.
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