Phobos
Science

Facts about Phobos

We found 16 facts about Phobos

The larger of two moons of Mars

We do not know the exact origin of this satellite. We know, however, that it is dangerously close to its planet and is in for a catastrophe. It is not a large object, but we can find many interesting souvenirs of cosmic collisions on its surface. One of them could even shatter the moon...

Phobos
1
Phobos is one of the two natural satellites orbiting Mars.
It is bigger than its companion, Deimos.
2
It’s named after a Greek deity.
Phobos was a son of Ares, a god of war. Ares is a counterpart of Mars from Roman mythology.
3
It is the closest orbiting moon in the Solar System.
It orbits Mars faster than it rotates, completing an orbit in 7 hours and 39 minutes.
4
Phobos was discovered by Asaph Hall on August 18th, 1877, through a telescope at the United States Naval Observatory, Washington, D.C.
Phobos was not the first moon to be discovered by Hall. He discovered its twin, Deimos, on August 12th, 1877.
5
Phobos’ orbit decreases by about 1,8 meters every 100 years.
In about 50 million years, the moon could be torn apart by Mars’ tidal forces or fall to its surface.
6
Phobos rises on the western side of the Martian sky and traverses it for 4 hours and 15 minutes before setting in the east.
7
The distance of Phobos from the surface of Mars is only 2.76 times the radius of the planet.
8
Phobos is a very small moon. Its dimensions are 26.8 x 21 x 18.4 km.
9
The area of ​​Phobos is 1,548.3 square kilometers.
10
The largest impact crater on the surface of Phobos is called Stickney, its diameter is up to 10 kilometers.
It was named after Asaph Hall’s wife, Chloe Angeline Stickney Hall, a mathematician. A collision that formed Stickney crater could have shattered the moon.
11
Phobos is believed to be an asteroid that has been intercepted by the gravitational field of Mars.
Both Phobos and Deimos share many similarities with C- or D-type asteroids.
12
Some even speculate that this body may not come from a nearby asteroid belt, but from the outer regions of the Solar System.
The most recent theory proposes that both Phobos and Deimos shared a common progenitor that shattered upon collision with another object, forming two Mars satellites.
13
There is a ridge on the surface of the moon, called the Kepler Dorsum.
It was named after the German astronomer, Johannes Kepler.
14
Phobos craters are named after astronomers who contributed to the study of the moon, and characters and locations from Jonathan Swift's “Gulliver’s Travels.”
One, for instance, is called “Skyresh,” It was a High Admiral of the Lilliput council.
15
The surface of Phobos is covered with streaks and ditches approximately 30 meters deep, 200 meters wide, and up to 20 km long.
16
Phobos was photographed by the following probes: Mariner 7, Mariner 9, Viking 1, Phobos 2, Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Express, and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
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