Our work on Mars, also known as the ‘Red Planet’, continues unabated. On this planet, where people are expected to be sent in the coming years, there are already many vehicles and researches are carried out. At the same time, studies on the planet and its moons continue without slowing down on Earth.
Now, scientists have managed to reach very interesting information about Phobos, one of the two moons of Mars. The study showed that Phobos disintegrated. The findings were recently published in The Planetary Science Journal.
Mars’ gravitational pull is tearing Phobos apart
The research revealed that Phobos shows signs of being torn apart by the gravitational pull of Mars. Scientists previously thought that the unusual marks on this moon’s surface were caused by ancient asteroid collisions. Now these are seen to be dust-filled canyons created by Phobos’ gravity.
Phobos, Mars’ largest moon, is 27 kilometers in diameter and 6,000 kilometers from the Red Planet. The moon, named after the Greek word for fear, completes three full rotations around the planet every day. If we make a comparison, the only natural satellite of the Earth, the Moon, is 3,475 kilometers wide and 238,855 kilometers away from our planet.
In addition, there is a rather interesting fact about Phobos. This moon’s orbit around Mars is not stable, according to NASA. This reveals that Phobos comes within 1.8 meters of the planet’s surface every 100 years.
May turn into rings of Mars after millions of years
The streaks on Phobos’ surface were also quite a mystery. As we mentioned earlier, the most common theory was that an asteroid hit the moon in the past. As a result of this impact, it was thought that a 9.7 kilometer wide crater known as ‘Stickney’ and these lines were formed. The new study revealed that these traces may be the result of the moon’s approach to the Red Planet and slowly breaking apart due to its gravitational pull. It is possible to say that this is the tidal force. So the idea behind the study is that a small object (Phobos in this case) approaches a larger object (Mars), then the smaller one extends towards the larger.
Using computer simulations, the researchers added that as a result, Phobos could turn into a ring of Mars at some point in the future, just like the rings of Saturn. NASA’s estimates showed that within 50 million years, this moon would either hit the surface of Mars or turn into a ring. The authors of the new study also noted that if tidal forces are already tearing the moon apart, Phobos could disappear much earlier than expected.
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