How did the moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, form and evolve orbiting the Red Planet? This is what a recent study published in Icarus hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated the processes that resulted in Phobos and Deimos orbiting Mars, which has been a longstanding debate within the scientific community. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the formation and evolution of moons throughout the solar system and what this could mean for finding life beyond Earth.
For the study, the researchers used computer models to simulate potential scenarios that resulted in the creation of Phobos and Deimos. While previous hypotheses state the moons could have formed from a large impact on the Martian surface or are captured asteroids, the researchers propose an asteroid came too close to Mars and was torn apart by the planet’s gravity, resulting in a debris disk that eventually formed the two small moons.
Image from the computer simulation depicting a debris ring around Mars that eventually formed Phobos and Deimos. (Credit: NASA Ames Research Center)
“It’s exciting to explore a new option for the making of Phobos and Deimos – the only moons in our solar system that orbit a rocky planet besides Earth’s,” said Dr. Jacob Kegerreis, who is a postdoctoral research scientist at NASA Ames Research Center and lead author of the study. “Furthermore, this new model makes different predictions about the moons’ properties that can be tested against the standard ideas for this key event in Mars’ history.”
This study comes as the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is slated to launch their Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission in 2026 with the goal of collecting and returning samples from Phobos sometime in 2031. Along with the sample return, the spacecraft will carry several scientific instruments designed to gather data on Mars and both of its moons.
What new discoveries about Phobos and Deimos will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!