Internet buzzes over NASA’s ‘space potato’: Meet Phobos, Mars’s lumpy moon. See pic | Trending
NASA’s official social media handles often share all kinds of interesting information about space. From purple aurora taking over Mars to amazing facts about the moon, asteroids and more, the space agency never fails to amaze us. Now, once again, they have caught the attention of the internet with a picture of a “space potato”. Yes, you read that right. Phobos is the larger of Mars’ two moons. (Instagram/@NASA) While sharing the picture, NASA, the caption, informed, “Phobos is the larger of Mars’ two moons—but it’s still only about 17 x 14 x 11 miles (27 22 18 kilometres) in diameter. Because Phobos is so small, its gravity isn’t strong enough to pull it into a sphere (like Earth’s Moon), giving it its lumpy shape. Phobos is also on a collision course with Mars—though it’ll take a while to get there. It’s nearing the Red Planet at a rate of six feet (1.8 meters) every hundred years. At that rate, the moon will either crash into Mars in 50 million years or break up into a ring.” (Also Read: Purple lights on the red planet: NASA’s MAVEN captures spectacular aurora on Mars. Watch) Now catch your favourite game on Crickit. Anytime Anywhere. Find out how They further wrote, “This image was taken the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on our Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been studying Mars since 2006.” Take a look at the post here: This post was shared two days ago on social media. Since being posted, it has gained close to four lakh likes. The share also has numerous comments. Many people were amazed to see the picture. (Also Read: NASA sheds light on the Whirlpool Galaxy through a series of unseen images. Seen the viral pics yet?) Here’s how netizens reacted:An individual wrote, “Finally, we find a potato in space.” Another person added, “Very, very interesting.” “Can we turn it into space fries,” commented a third. Some other Instagram user posted, “Beautiful potato in the space.” News / Trending / Internet buzzes over NASA’s ‘space potato’: Meet Phobos, Mars’s lumpy moon. See pic
