Mars’ Moon Phobos Breaking Apart due to Red Planet’s

The gravitational pull between Mars and Phobos produces these tidal forces.

Mars moon Phobos, named after the Greek god of fear, has had a hard life of uncertain origin. At first, scientists believed the grooves were associated with Phobos’ large crater Stickney, which is half the size of Phobos itself. Already nearly shattered by an ancient cosmic impact, the fragile moon is slowly breaking up under the stress of Mars’ gravity.

Scientists have known for a few time that Phobos, the larger of Mars’ two small moons, is a victim of gravity, edging closer toward its parent planet.

When all these are factored in with computer modelling, the scientific team discovered that the grooves marking the surface of Phobos are signs of tidal forces at work.

“We think the grooves are signs that this body is starting to break apart tidally and that these are the first of the tidal deformations of Phobos”, he told Discovery News. Deimos, Mars’ other moon, seems safe for now.

The problem lies in the moon’s distance from Mars, just 3,700 miles above its surface. The research was presented Tuesday at the annual Meeting of the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society. The interior of the moon is only protected by powdery regolith dispersed as a blanket of 330 feet in thickness.

In the past, scientists thought Phobos was solid enough to withstand the pressure; now they think that that isn’t the case.

Phobos, a tiny moon orbiting Mars, is slowly cracking up and could disappear entirely in millions of years, scientists say.

The scientist noted that NASA’s observations on the interaction between Phobos and its host planet could provide new insights regarding the effect of tidal forces.

An interior like this can distort easily because it has very little strength and forces the outer layer to readjust. So if and when Phobos does crack open, our future Martian descendants can expect a real nasty dust storm punctuated by hot falling chunks of garbage moon.

The researchers think the outer layer of Phobos behaves elastically and builds stress, but it’s weak enough that these stresses can cause it to fail.

Understanding what’s happening to Phobos will provide researchers with new insights into similar events happening within the solar system and beyond.

The same grim fate may also await Neptune’s moon Triton, which has a similarly fractured surface and is collapsing inward.