Search Here

According to a new research, Mars too may one day get the famous halo like ring that Saturn has. Millions of years later, Mars will crush its innermost moon, Phobos, completely and form a ring of debris that will appear like the ring around Saturn. As per the research, Phobos is inching close to the red planet every day, which means that its gravitational pull is increasing significantly. While some researchers believe that Phobos will eventually crash into Mars but the research, as reported by Space, says that the small moon will not be able to survive that long. Tushar Mittal, one of the authors on the paper and also a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley said in an email, "The main factor affecting whether Phobos will crash into Mars or break apart is its strength. If Phobos is too weak to withstand increasing tidal stresses, then we expect it to break apart."

The moons of Mars, Deimos and Phobos have been named after the Greek God, Ares', children who was considered as the Roman god of war. The inner moon, Phobos, is 22 kilometers wide and is orbiting around Mars quickly, when it rises and sets two times according to a Martian day. Every century, the moon closes nearer to Mars by 2 meters. As a result, it is expected that the moon will experience a collision with the Martian surface within 50 million years, as per the previous research. However, looking at the physical stress that Mars exerts on its inner moon, Benjamin Black, postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkley, and Mittal, believe that gravity of Mars will gradually pull the moon apart. After simulating the stress caused by the tidal pull of Mars, the duo concluded that the moon will eventually break up over a period of 20 to 40 million years, forming a ring of debris, reports The Christian Monitor.