TGR 06.11.18. The Phobos Enigma: A Martian Mystery

This week on The Gralien Report, after a hearty welcome back to our friend and producer Race Hobbs, we lead off with a discussion about new research which has shown that the moon has slowly been moving further away from the Earth over time. This has caused our planet’s rotation to slow down gradually and, thus, the length of our days are actually getting longer. Elsewhere, a US Air Force agent who went missing during the height of the Cold War has suddenly reappeared… so why do some think his decades-long disappearance might have something to do with the tragic explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986?

We also take a moment to note the latest tragic news pertaining to the death of an American icon, regarding celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, who was found dead in France while filming for his popular program Parts Unknown. With the passing of many celebrities in recent months who have claimed their own lives, we take a moment to ask, why are suicide rates on the rise?

Then, in addition to other news and interesting stories shared by our listeners, we turn our attention to the recent news about an exciting discovery on Mars, where the building blocks of life were recently found as part of the current Mars rover mission. Similar organic signatures have long been sought, ever since the previous Viking mission sent back interesting data on what might exist within the Martian topsoil. Shifting our attention away from the Red Planet, we then focus on one of its most unusual moons, Phobos, which has a long history of unusual phenomena associated with it. Most notably, a 1989 incident which involved odd photographs captured by the Russian Phobos 2 probe, as well as NASA photographs that appear to show a skyscraper-shaped “monolith” on Phobos. Where do the fact and the fantasy collide with regard to these exciting mysteries of the most unusual Martian moon?