Which is a polite way of saying, Smack into something at a few kilometers a second and see how big a hole you make.

Heh! Polite, but not so funny!

As a very rough estimate, one could probably hollow it out and build a habitat housing several hundred thousand people and other critters.

Ah, the dreams,,,

GAry 7

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galle_(Martian_crater)

Yes…this is dated, but I loved that show.

Ceres is about 950 km in diameter and is a sphere.

I think that’s about the lower limit for an object to gravitationally collapse into a sphere.

Gary 7

I assume the reddish color is due to the surface picking up dust that has been thrown up into it’s orbit from the planet below… but the lack of major cratering just facinates me.

BTW, I caught the Watchmen flub too… my question about the film is: when did we first know about the “smiley face” crater on Mars? Was this something in the graphic novel, or was it something the filmmakers exploited when those photos were in the popular press a few months back, while they were still in production?

Think of regolith as soil without the organic component.

The graphic novel gets some bits wrong, too – like how long it takes light to get to Pluto (I loaned mine out so I can’t verify the exact quote)

…It’s a retarded thing to say uh?

# Torbjörn Larsson, OM Says:
March 9th, 2009 at 3:21 pm

Wes, there is plenty of kinetic energy to go around even with low gravity.

# kuhnigget Says:
March 9th, 2009 at 3:28 pm

Wes, there is plenty of kinetic energy to go around even with low gravity.

Which is a polite way of saying, Smack into something at a few kilometers a second and see how big a hole you make.

# Harold Says:
March 9th, 2009 at 3:50 pm

Wes, I think the point is, the objects that caused these craters weren’t necessarily gravitationally attracted towards Deimos, they just happened to be zipping through the same volume of space that Deimos was occupying at the time, with a heck of a lot of kinetic energy and no atmosphere to slow them down. I believe the same is true of most collisions in space. Most things that were puttering along at speeds slow enough to be gravitationally captured by the various planets and moons (and/or fall onto them) were captured or accelerated by the various planets and moons billions of years ago.

A ha! That was my mistake. I was only thinking in terms of Deimos capturing things with its gravity. For whatever reason, the fact that these objects might already be cruising along at a high rate of speed relative to Deimos didn’t occur to me. *forehead slap*

Thanks guys!

Which is a polite way of saying, Smack into something at a few kilometers a second and see how big a hole you make.

over the horizon, are Deimos and Phobos… but they are WAY too big and round, like two Lunas up in the salmon sky.

Um, haven’t seen the movie yet, but I believe that is compatible with the Watchmen universe.

AFAIU Dr Manhattan could change mass and form of any objects, and teleport them to any orbit to boot. (Possible spoiler alert: And I believe he was redecorating some of the landscape, so it would even be likely if there was any noticeable differences.)

Not that I would let up on pointing out any Bad Astronomy underlying the movie.

[The button misadventures must be in the movie, not the comic where the fallen body is never shown IIRC.]