The Phobos Moon is Set on a Collision Course With Mars
If you thought that we Earthlings could consider ourselves lucky for having the chance to admire the Moon and its unmistakable craters in the night sky, well, Martians are even luckier, if they exist. Our neighboring planet has two natural satellites revolving around it, despite the fact that Mars is about two times smaller than Earth.
One of the moons of Mars is known as Phobos, and it’s significantly smaller than our Moon. In fact, Phobos doesn’t even have a spherical shape such as the Moon. This happened due to not enough mass gathering along the eons to form a more spherical structure.
When will Phobos crash into Mars?
It seems that Phobos is slowly but surely approaching its demise, as it will ultimately crash into its host planet Mars. Here’s a relevant quote coming from NASA’s page on Phobos:
Phobos is nearing Mars at a rate of six feet (1.8 meters) every hundred years; at that rate, it will either crash into Mars in 50 million years or break up into a ring.
NASA also explained in a statement:
Scientists already know that Phobos is doomed,
The moon is getting closer to the Martian surface and is destined to crash into the planet in tens of millions of years. But eclipse observations from the surface of Mars over the last two decades have also allowed scientists to refine their understanding of Phobos’ slow death spiral.
In the cosmic dance around Mars, Phobos is the grander of the Red Planet’s lunar pair. With dimensions stretching to 17 x 14 x 11 miles (27 by 22 by 18 kilometers), this moon completes its orbit thrice daily. Yet, such proximity to Mars’ surface veils the moon in mystery, concealing its presence from curious eyes in certain Martian realms.
Deimos, on the other hand, is the tinier sibling of the Martian lunar duo. Unlike its counterpart, Deimos possesses a more refined structure. Gazing upon its surface, one will find the largest crater spanning a modest 2.3 kilometers, merely a fifth of the magnitude of Phobos’ mightiest impact crater.
Tommy’s hobby has always been playing video games. He enjoys competing in video games tournaments and writing about his experience. It’s not a big surprise that he mostly covers the latest trends from the gaming industry.
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