Phobos & Deimos: 5 facts about weird Martian moons 🤪
✅ If you spent a few days on Mars, you’d be surprised by the weird motion of its moons. During Deimos’ slow 66-hour journey across the sky toward the west, Phobos rapidly swishes in the opposite direction more than six times.
✅ Phobos orbits its planet closer than any other moon in the Solar System — only 6,000 km (3728 miles) above the Martian surface (in comparison, our Moon is 384,400 km above the Earth). Deimos is on the second place among Solar System planets’ moons.
✅ Mars will lose its moons. Phobos that slowly approaches Mars will crash into the planet or break up into a ring. Deimos, on the contrary, moves away from Mars and eventually will leave the planet’s orbit.
✅ Although Phobos is only 1% of our Moon’s diameter, it appears about half as wide as viewed from Mars. Deimos, in its turn, seems similar to a star in size from the Red Planet.
✅ Phobos and Deimos’ origin is still controversial and doesn't correspond with how planetary moons are typically formed.
Learn more about Phobos and Deimos on our starwalk.space website (the link is in the bio) from the new article: “Phobos & Deimos: Impossible Moons of Mars” ☝️
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