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The Phobos Monolith

August 29, 2012 in Space Mysteries, Uncategorized

The Phobos monolith is a surface feature on Mars’ moon Phobos. It is a rock about 85 meters (~280 feet) across. It stirred great interest when it was spotted because of the long shadow it casts on the moon’s surface, giving it the look of an artificially created structure, and reminding many of the giant monolith in the Stanley Kubrick science fiction film classic, 2001: A Space Odyssey.

A monolith is a geological feature consisting of a single massive piece of rock. (From the Ancient Greek mono lithos, meaning ‘single stone’). Monoliths also occur naturally on Earth, but it has been suggested that the Phobos monolith may be a piece of impact ejecta. The Phobos Monolith is a bright object near Stickney crater. It was discovered by Efrain Palermo, who did large surveys of Martian probe imagery, and later confirmed by Lan Fleming, an imaging sub-contractor at NASA Johnson Space Center.

Phobos Monolith

Phobos Monolith as taken by Mars Global Surveyor (MOC Image 55103) in 1998

The object appears in Mars Global Surveyor images SPS252603 and SPS255103, dated 1998.

The mysteries:

Is it artificial or natural? If it’s natural, how did it come to be?
Is it pyramid shaped?

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