Not only does our planet have moons, most of the celestial bodies that make up the solar system have more than one moon, such is the case of Mars, which has two characteristic satellites that are still being studied. Learn in this article all about the satellites of mars.
What are the Moons of Mars?
The planet Mars has two natural satellites, also called moons, they are small and their names are Phobos and Deimos, it is presumed that they are asteroids detained by the force of gravity of the red planet, it is most likely that they come from the steroid belt that they are in middle of Mars and Jupiter or they could also come from the confines of the Solar System.
These satellites were found in the year 1877 by Asaph Hall, an American astronomer. It was given its name by the sons of Ares, the Greek God of War, which in Roman is the God Mars: Phobos means fear and Deimos means panic or terror.
Before the actual discovery of the moons of mars, there were hypotheses about its existence. Johannes Kepler predicted the number of satellites on this planet in the XNUMXth century, however, he did this only by mathematical logic, this is because at the time it was assumed that the Jupiter satellites they had 4 moons, the earth only one and by deduction Kepler said that Mars had 2 moons.
These moons are some of the smallest in the solar system.
As they are?
Phobos is the largest moon, truly resembling a cratered asteroid. Phobos and Deimos always show the same face in the direction of their planet. Both are submerged in dust, loose rock and are from the darkest centers of the solar system.
The astronomer Asaph Hall arduously investigated the moons of Mars, until the night of the month of August of the year 1877 when he gave up, it was thanks to his wife who encouraged him to continue, who resumed the investigations. On the following night he discovered Phobos and six nights later he revealed Deimos.
After ninety-four years, Mariner 9 managed to observe both satellites much better from its orbit around Mars, finding a crater on Phobos approximately 10 km in diameter.
The way of moving of Phobos and Deimos is different from that of the terrestrial moon:
- Phobos: it moves fleetingly and settles in the East and increases in the West after eleven hours.
- Say: if it travels from the East and even taking 2,7 days to settle due to its rotation, which is much slower than that of Mars, it takes only 30 hours to transit its orbit.
Deimos
In 1977, Deimos was photographed for the first time by UKing 1. Its appearance is very otherworldly and it is found mixed with rocks rich in ice and carbon.
It is thought to be an asteroid and with its orbit it altered the gravitational field of Jupiter and was later stopped by Mars. It is more equal in dimensions than Phobos and has about 30 km in diameter.
The smallest moon in the solar system is Deimos, it has only one thousandth of the gravitational force of the earth. An 80-kilogram individual would only think about 80 grams of the satellite. This reddish and dark element (Deimos) takes 30 hours to complete its orbit around Mars.
If we observe it from Mars, Deimos is just a point in the sky, difficult to differentiate between the stars. If we observe it from Deimos, Mars is a thousand times higher element and four hundred times much brighter than the full moon itself seen from Earth.
There are only two named geologic lines on Deimos. Voltaire, in his story Micromegas, talks about the two moons of Mars. It is for this reason that one of the craters on Deimos adopts his name and another that of Swift, due to his relationship with the Martian satellites, in his narrative of Gulliver's Travels.
At the time these researchers will talk about the moon of Mars, they had not yet revealed or discovered it, Deimos was the son of Ares and Aphrodite, gods of love and war.
Phobos
It is somewhat larger than Deimos and its orbit is only 6000 kilometers from the surface, there is no other satellite that is as close to its planet as Phobos. It rotates around Mars about three times a day.
Every century Phobos approaches the planet two meters, so in about 50 million years it will collide with Mars or it will be destroyed and its parts will create a ring around the planet. On the dark face of this moon are numerous circular craters and crater rings.
The Geological Lines of Phobos take their name from the narrations of Jonathan Swift in Gulliver's Travels, where some astronomers find the two satellites on Mars, except the later Kepler Dorsum, named in honor of Johannes Kepler.
In 2014, the Russians sent a probe called the Phobos-Grunt, to obtain samples from the surface of Phobos. Perhaps when more information is obtained regarding these strange moons, they will have to be renamed.
How did the Moons of Mars form?
Mars has two special moons, which are more like asteroids than Earth's moon. structure of the earth. Phobos and Deimos originated about 4000 billion years ago, 600 million years after the solar system was formed, but their birth remains an intrigue. F
According to the most recent publication in Science Advances, both moons originated primarily from Martian rocks rejected into space after colliding with another element about 4000 billion years ago.
At present, two hypotheses about the birth of the satellites of Mars (Phobos and Deimos), with an area of 22 and 12 kilometers respectively, are handled. However, only one of them has been approved.
It is maintained that they are truly asteroids, coming from the belt between Mars and Jupiter, stopped by the gravity of the red planet. The appearance of its surface, furrowed with craters that express light, is very similar to that of asteroids.
