Image copyright NASA
inexorably, Phobos, the larger of the two moons of Mars moves toward the red planet.
is approaching at a rate of 1.8 centimeters per year.
And when the gravitational pull of the planet becomes impossible to resist, this satellite is destroyed leaving a trail of shaped material Mars conferring ring very similar to Saturn aspect.
There is still much to happen.
Given the distance between Phobos and Mars 6000 km, a trifle compared with the 400,000 km that separate our satellite of the Earth, its size, density and other variables, this cosmic event will not occur for another 20,000 to 40,000 million years.
Phobos, 22 km in diameter, will disintegrate due to the presence fractures and pores in its mass, explained Benjamin Black and Tushar Mittal, researchers at the University of California, US, and author of the study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
This episode added transform Mars in the first rocky planet surrounded by a ring (the others have a ring system, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are gaseous).
The model created by Black and Mittal also shows that once the process ring will be formed within six weeks to start.
” If you were standing on the surface of Mars, you could sit in a chair to watch Phobos decays to form a large ring, “Black says.
To get a better idea, Black compares the process to what happens when you try from a granola bar: leaves crumbs and pieces everywhere
<. p> However, it will remain for long. estimated that the debris could be maintained between a million and 100 million years until finally descend to the surface
The other moon Mars, Deimos roughly half the size of Phobos, but in a more faraway orbit will remain in place.
According to the researchers, they miss more missions to Phobos to see if their predictions model are correct.
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