Phobos Facts
Phobos Facts
|
| Interesting Phobos Facts: |
|---|
| Hall named this moon after the Greek god, Phobos, a son of Ares (Mars) and Aphrodite (Venus), and the brother of Deimos. The name Phobos means fear or panic. |
| The origin of Mars' moons is controversial. Some scientists believe that they came from the asteroid belt, with Jupiter's gravity long ago nudging them into orbit around Mars. Others believed the moons may have formed as satellites around Mars, created by dust and rock that was drawn together by gravity. Another hypothesis is that Mars may have had an existing moon that may have collided with the red planet and created dust and rubble which drew together to form Phobos and Deimos. |
| Phobos is dark gray in color. It is one of the darkest and least reflective objects in the Solar System. It has an irregular, non-spherical shape. |
| Temperatures vary on Phobos. During the day, the highs on the sunlit side of the planet can reach minus 4 degrees Celsius (25 degrees Fahrenheit) and at night it can be as cold as minus 112 degrees Celsius (170 degrees Fahrenheit). |
| The large impact crater that dominates Phobos, Stickney, stretches nearly 6 miles (9.5 km) and covers most of its surface. The crater is so large that it likely came close to shattering the small moon. Hall named the crater after his dedicated wife, Chloe Angeline Stickney. |
| Every one hundred years, Phobos gets closer to Mars by about 2 meters and is predicted that within 30 to 50 million years it will either break up into a planetary ring or collide with its parent planet. |
| Phobos appears that it may be a rubble pile that is held together by a thin crust. There are long grooves on the surface that some believe to be early signs of the moon breaking apart due to tidal stresses caused by Mars' gravity. Others believe that the grooves could be remnants of the impact that caused the crater Stickney and that the grooves suggest loose material slid down inside the crater walls over time. |
| This moon does not have an atmosphere due to its low mass. It retains too little mass to be rounded under its own gravity. |
| On December 3, 1980, the Kaidun meteorite fell on a Soviet military base in Yemen. The single stone weighed about 4.4 pounds (2 kilograms) and was recovered from a small impact pit. In March 2004, it was suggested to be a piece of Phobos due to the existence of two extremely rare alkaline-rich clasts that were found in the meteorite. |
|
Related Links: Facts Space Facts Animals Facts Space Mars Reading Comprehension Aphrodite Facts Mars Facts Acceleration Due to Gravity Formula |