The internet is abuzz with excitement over a recent post shared by NASA showcasing a fascinating image of Phobos, Mars’s larger moon which has been nicknamed as the ‘space potato’. The image, captured by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, highlights the unique lumpy shape of Phobos. Measuring at approximately 17 x 14 x 11 miles in diameter, Phobos stands out due to its irregular shape, unlike Earth’s spherical moon. Moreover, the caption accompanying the image reveals intriguing details about Phobos, including its collision course with Mars at a rate of six feet every hundred years. Scientists predict that Phobos may either collide with Mars in 50 million years or break up into a ring. The post, shared on NASA’s official social media handles, has garnered massive attention, accumulating close to four lakh likes and sparking a wave of comments from intrigued viewers.
Researchers from ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich have recently conducted a study shedding light on the mysterious origins of Phobos and its smaller companion, Deimos. Utilizing computer simulations and seismic recordings from the InSight Mars mission, the scientists discovered that Phobos and Deimos are remnants of a larger Martian moon that was disrupted between 1 and 2.7 billion years ago. These findings challenge the notion that Phobos and Deimos might be captured asteroids, as their orbits are almost circular and aligned with the equatorial plane of Mars. By tracing the orbits of Phobos and Deimos backward in time, researchers inferred that a larger moon orbiting Mars disintegrated, resulting in the formation of the current moons. These groundbreaking revelations offer a new perspective on the peculiar shapes and orbits of Phobos and Deimos, providing valuable insights into their enigmatic origins.
Additionally, a recent study by astrophysicists at the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has unveiled fascinating details about Phobos’ surface dynamics. The research suggests that Phobos’ eccentric orbit causes flow of regolith – dust and rock grains – across its surface, leading to distinctive reddish and bluish regions. By analyzing the surface motion of Phobos, scientists have inferred that the blue regions consist of pristine material while the red regions comprise weathered regolith. These findings could potentially solve the puzzle of Phobos’ origins, shedding light on whether the moon originated from a giant impact on Mars or was captured by the planet’s gravity. The upcoming Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) probe mission by JAXA aims to collect samples from Phobos, which could provide crucial insights into the moon’s mysterious history and resolve long-standing debates regarding its origin.
