{"id":29550,"date":"2010-01-28T20:16:57","date_gmt":"2010-01-29T02:16:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fredbortz.peachpuff-wolverine-566518.hostingersite.com\/29550\/childrens-writer-corrects-nasa-error\/"},"modified":"2011-07-12T22:37:32","modified_gmt":"2011-07-12T22:37:32","slug":"childrens-writer-corrects-nasa-error","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/29550\/childrens-writer-corrects-nasa-error\/","title":{"rendered":"Children&#8217;s Writer Corrects NASA Error!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A writing friend suggested I sensationalize the headline of this little but interesting and instructive tale.  So assuming the headline got your attention, read on if you want to know how I noticed a scientific error in the caption on a NASA\/JPL Photojournal page.  I promise you&#8217;ll discover something interesting about the Martian sky if you do.<br \/>\n<!--break--><br \/>\n<a HREF=\"http:\/\/photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov\/catalog\/PIA06337\">The page describes a time lapse image of the two moons of Mars taken by the Spirit Rover<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img><\/p>\n<p>I hope to use that illustration in a middle-grade book that I am currently developing about humanity&#8217;s future in space.  One of the tidbits I will include is that the larger and inner moon, Phobos, completes an orbit in less than a third of a sol (Martian day, about 24h37m).  As a result, it rises in the west and sets in the east, appearing in the sky twice a night and progressing through its phases.<\/p>\n<p>When I found the page, I noticed that the caption stated that the two Moons were traveling in the same direction, from the top to the bottom of the image. I contacted NASA and asked them to clarify, since I thought the moons were moving in opposite directions.<\/p>\n<p>I was right, and the error was corrected.  Even better, Jim Bell, the NASA scientist who verified my statement, suggested it could be a useful lesson about how science and scientists work.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll quote him, since I couldn&#8217;t say it any better.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Mr. Bortz is right!  I don&#8217;t know how that error escaped our attention.  But then again, there&#8217;s a lot that I don&#8217;t know&#8230;   In that time-lapse, Phobos is moving from top to bottom and Deimos (and Aldebaran) is moving from bottom to top.<\/p>\n<p>My guess is that whoever wrote the caption was thinking about some of the movies that we&#8217;ve made that show Phobos and Deimos moving relative to the fixed stars (like <a HREF=\"http:\/\/marswatch.astro.cornell.edu\/pancam_instrument\/images\/phobos_deimos_585txt.gif\">  this one<\/a> posted at the bottom of <a HREF=\"http:\/\/marswatch.astro.cornell.edu\/pancam_instrument\/projects_2.html\">this page<\/a>).  If we remove the motion of the sky overall, Phobos and Deimos appear to move in the same direction because, after all, they both orbit Mars in the same direction.  It&#8217;s just that Phobos orbits faster than Mars spins so it appears to be moving backwards in the sky.  It&#8217;s kind of like passing another car on the freeway&#8211;you&#8217;re both going forward over 60 mph (probably), but the slower car appears to you in your car to be moving backwards when you pass.<\/p>\n<p>Please thank Mr. Bortz for pointing out this error&#8211;which I hope he uses as a teachable moment about the fallibility of scientists&#8211;as well as the importance of perspective when considering absolute and relative motions! <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>So there you have it. One small step for a ScienceBlogger, one giant leap for your imagination of what it would be like to stargaze on Mars.<\/p>\n<p><a HREF=\"http:\/\/www.fredbortz.com\/home.htm\">Fred Bortz<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A writing friend suggested I sensationalize the headline of this little but interesting and instructive tale.  So assuming the headline got your attention, read on if you want to know how I noticed a scientific error in the caption on a NASA\/JPL Photojournal page.  I promise you&#8217;ll discover something interesting about the Martian sky if you do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Children&#039;s Writer Corrects NASA Error! - Fred Bortz<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/29550\/childrens-writer-corrects-nasa-error\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Children&#039;s Writer Corrects NASA Error!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A writing friend suggested I sensationalize the headline of this little but interesting and instructive tale. 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