Deimos Facts
Deimos Facts
|
Interesting Deimos Facts: |
---|
Hall named this moon after the Greek god of War, Deimos, a son of Ares (Mars) and Aphrodite (Venus), and the brother of Phobos. The name Deimos means dread or terror. |
Scientists are unsure of the birth of Phobos and Deimos. Some scientists concluded that they came from the asteroid belt, with Jupiter's gravity long ago nudging them into orbit around Mars. Others believed these dark 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. |
Deimos is a very small, lumpy, heavily cratered object, though smoother than Phobos. It has a radius of 3.9 miles (6.2 kilometers) and takes 30.3 hours to orbit Mars. When Deimos eclipses the sun, it appears as a tiny dot moving across its surface. During full moon, Deimos shines as bright as the planet Venus which is one of the brightest objects in our Solar System. |
Unlike the moon Phobos that will collide with Mars in 50-100 million years, the orbit of Deimos is moving the moon away from Mars. At some point, the moon will move off into space when it gets too far from Mars' gravity to remain in orbit. |
Deimos has a very odd, irregular shape and is not spherical like other moons in the Solar System. |
The average temperature of Deimos is minus 40.15 degrees Celsius. |
There are only two geological features on Deimos that have been named. They are the two largest craters on the moon. The crater named Swift has a diameter of 1,000 miles and was named after Jonathan Swift who was the author of Gulliver's Travels who wrote about the two moons of Mars 151 years before they were discovered. |
The second crater is Voltaire which has a diameter of 1900 miles and was named after the French writer Francois-Marie Arouet who was known by the pen name Voltaire. |
Deimos has been photographed by many different spacecraft whose primary mission was to photograph the planet Mars. The first craft to orbit the planet was the Mariner 9 in 1971, however no landings have ever taken place on this moon. |
Related Links: Facts Space Facts Animals Facts Space Mars Reading Comprehension Aphrodite Facts |