Quantcast
ZME Science
  • CoronavirusNEW
  • News
  • Environment
    • Climate
    • Animals
    • Renewable Energy
    • Eco tips
    • Environmental Issues
    • Green Living
  • Health
    • Alternative Medicine
    • Anatomy
    • Diseases
    • Genetics
    • Mind & Brain
    • Nutrition
  • Future
  • Space
  • Feature
    • Feature Post
    • Art
    • Great Pics
    • Design
    • Fossil Friday
    • AstroPicture
    • GeoPicture
    • Did you know?
    • Offbeat
  • More
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Our stance on climate change
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact
No Result
View All Result
ZME Science

No Result
View All Result
ZME Science
No Result
View All Result
Home Space Astrophysics

Martian Moon May Become a Ring

The larger of the two Martian Moons, Phobos, may break apart and become a ring around the Red Planet, a new study found.

Dragos Mitrica by Dragos Mitrica
November 23, 2015
in Astrophysics, News

The larger of the two Martian Moons, Phobos, may break apart and become a ring around the Red Planet, a new study found.

PSP_007769_9010_IRB-1024x1002

Both of the two moons were discovered in 1877 by American astronomer Asaph Hall, despite their small size. Phobos, the larger of the two, only has a mean radius of about 11 km, while Deimos, its smaller sister, is seven times smaller. Phobos is decelerating its speed by 2 meters every one hundred years, and it is believed that the moon will ultimately disintegrate in under 50 million years. Now, a new study conducted by Benjamin Black and Tushar Mittal at Berkeley University not only but a shorter time frame on that destruction, but also added another interesting twist: Phobos might become a ring around Mars.

The two researchers used observational data and a geotechnical model to calculate the strength of Phobos, and found that much of the moon is composed of weak materials. They predict that these will break apart once sufficient tidal stresses are reached in 20–40 million years. The resulting non-cohesive pieces will disperse to form a ring around Mars that will last for at least 1 million years (and up to 100).

Journal Reference: Benjamin A. Black & Tushar Mittal – The demise of Phobos and development of a Martian ring system. Nature Geoscience(2015)doi:10.1038/ngeo2583

Get more science news like this...

Join the ZME newsletter for amazing science news, features, and exclusive scoops. More than 40,000 subscribers can't be wrong.

   

 

Dragos Mitrica

Dragos Mitrica

Dragos has been working in geology for six years, and loving every minute of it. Now, his more recent focus is on paleoclimate and climatic evolution, though in his spare time, he also dedicates a lot of time to chaos theory and complex systems.

Follow ZME on social media

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
  • Coronavirus
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Feature
  • More

© 2007-2019 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Coronavirus
  • News
  • Environment
    • Climate
    • Animals
    • Renewable Energy
    • Eco tips
    • Environmental Issues
    • Green Living
  • Health
    • Alternative Medicine
    • Anatomy
    • Diseases
    • Genetics
    • Mind & Brain
    • Nutrition
  • Future
  • Space
  • Feature
    • Feature Post
    • Art
    • Great Pics
    • Design
    • Fossil Friday
    • AstroPicture
    • GeoPicture
    • Did you know?
    • Offbeat
  • More
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Our stance on climate change
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact

© 2007-2019 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.