Phobos: The Doomed Moon of Mars

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Phobos may be small, but there is so much going on with this tiny little moon - conspiracy theories, a dubious origin and the fact its days are numbered mean there's a lot of Phobian features to cover.

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When he started talking about how Phobos went around Mars 3 times in a Martian day, I could picture Phobos shouting excitedly as it hurtles through the air while Mars looks on with cold dead eyes knowing the the sickening fate of the little rascal

soso

Well of course it's doomed, The game known as Doom starts on Phobos

Andy_Dagamer

Phobos: The DooM'd Moon of Mars. ;)

Bjorn

3:37 I like that evil laugh about Mars destroying Phobos in the Future!

amilcarbonilla

Great vid, Lunartic! Really enjoying your grasp of CGI, combined with the research to illuminate a the shadowy surface (and interior!) of Phobos. Thanks for reaching into the papers and unveiling some of the relevant, shiny, details for us.

ChannaTonySquires

Excellent video. Nice to see a thorough and accurate presentation on Phobos – including one of best visualizations I've seen for tidal force transfer. This is _exactly_ how dynamicists describe and calculate tidal orbital decay. You have clearly done your research, and the following are additional points to consider...

Very likely, as you describe, the interior of Phobos is a mix of rocks and voids, but there is not enough evidence to rule out rocks mixed with water ice. Considering how Phobos was most likely produced by a giant impact on Mars, the Phobos science community is doubtful about buried ice. Nonetheless, for future human activities, it would be handy to find water inside Phobos (no water is observed on the surface, except water as part of phyllosilicate minerals).

Early on, you mention how Phobos looks exactly like an asteroid – morphologically this is true, but spectrally, Phobos looks a lot like one particular type – a carbonaceous asteroid – a type most typically found in the outermost portions of the asteroid belt – making even harder to imagine a capture scenario (especially where Deimos has the same apparent composition as Phobos – and notionally arrived by the same unlikely process).

Yes, there is spectral evidence of phyllosilicates on Phobos, though as it turns out, phyllosilicates are not particularly rare on asteroids (most asteroids were warm and wet when they formed) – and observing phyllosilicates on Phobos does not strongly support the impact hypothesis (nor does this rule it out).

Where – as it turns out – Phobos is already inside the traditional 'Roche Limit, ' it seems to have a bit of mechanical strength, or else it would have begun its breakup by now. In fact, the way that Phobos is still intact raises hope for interior water ice – since buried ice might be holding things together (but simple adhesion is enough to do the job for now – stay tuned).

Once Phobos breaks up, it will happen piece-by-piece, probably fragmenting into several smaller chunks, then those pieces will eventually break into smaller chunks – a process taking millions of years, not all in one a sudden burst. A ring will likely form, as you describe, and the debris will indeed reach Mars, but also piece-by-piece spread over millions of years.

On a related Roche Limit topic… space vehicles and astronauts moving around Phobos will have problems navigating. The proximity of Phobos to Mars messes with local gravity and would make it very easy for a strolling astronaut to accidentally walk into an orbit around Mars. In fact, the effect of martian gravity is so strong that nothing can orbit Phobos without drifting away, and the only stable orbit near Phobos is an orbit around Mars that is similar to Phobos.

FYI, before you make your video on the Phobos grooves – first checkout the paper by Wilson and Head (2015) "Groove formation on Phobos: Testing the Stickney ejecta emplacement model for a subset of the groove population" – they list and reverence all current hypotheses. In fact, considering how we have known about the grooves of Phobos since the Viking missions of the 1970s – and _still_ have not reached the slightest consensus on their origin – it is one of the great mysteries of planetary science.

encellon

Searched Phobos to listen to a song and here I am. I’m not complaining

Jake

Deimos really needs the respect it deserves.

nicholasscardinanewandimpo

Yep! it was "Doomed" The Demons started invading it! Send Doomguy to dispatch...

jaidenhoto

You deserve more subs, sir! Great content!

pma

Phobos Sounds Like Aliens Is Screaming To Death

marisadelacruz

I wonder what will happen if we have a Mars Colony at the time. Will the equator just be evacuated or will the asteroid shower of Phobos pose a threat to the whole planet?

GeraudRulz