In 1877, the American astronomer Asaf Hall discovered two satellites of Mars - Phobos and Deimos. Phobos is the only satellite in the solar system whose period of revolution around the planet is less than the period of its revolution around the sun. Both moons are located strictly on the equatorial plane of Mars.
Phobos and Deimos are small. The diameter of Phobos is 20 km, the diameter of its "twin brother" is much smaller. These are the smallest satellites in the universe. For a long time they were thought to be asteroids captured by Mars about 500 million years ago. In 1959, the Soviet astrophysicist Joseph Shklovsky, due to the peculiarities of the movement of Phobos, suggested that it was hollow inside. Scientists instantly turned the satellite of Mars into an artificial object created by aliens to observe Mars. This theory was quickly forgotten.
Only at the beginning of the XXI century, astronomers received data from the Mars-Express AMS, which made it possible to assert that Phobos still has a cavity inside. Together with other oddities of Phobos, this made it possible to assert that it is of artificial origin.
The strange satellite of the red planet
The first thing astronomers pay attention to is the orbit of Phobos. It is almost a perfect circle. This is unlikely to be possible if Mars simply captured an asteroid. In addition, the orbit is located exactly in the equatorial plane, which makes the officially natural version of the origin of Phobos unlikely.
"Mars Express" transmitted data that made it possible to find out that inside Phobos is almost a third empty. The voids in it have the correct shape and there are too many of them for Phobos to remain whole. In the seventies of the last century, the American Viking spacecraft filmed chains of craters on Phobos. They are completely straight lines.
Phobos craters are like dents in metal.
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The date of Phobos discovery also seems strange. As you know, it was opened on August 18, 1877. The moons of Jupiter, which is much farther from Earth, were observed back in 1610 by Galileo Galilei, and the first satellite of Saturn was discovered by astronomers back in 1655. The moons of Uranus were first seen in 1787, and Neptune in 1846. That is, the satellites of Mars, which is closer to the Earth than the gas giants, were discovered later than the moons of the outer planets. Shklovsky suggested that Phobos and Deimos were discovered a short time after their appearance.
In 1989, the Soviet Phobos program was launched to help astronomers better explore this unique satellite. The device "Phobos-1" did not even get to Phobos, communication with it was lost. The second unit reported arrival at its destination and began transmitting images. On March 27, contact with him was lost. According to the official version, he did not report anything that day. The device "Phobos-Grunt" was launched, but due to an unforeseen situation fell into the Pacific Ocean. They wanted to launch the second apparatus of this program in 2024, but the launch date was postponed indefinitely.
Classified data
It is believed that Phobos 2 did not transmit a single image to Earth on March 27, 1989. But there is an opinion that it was destroyed by an unknown object, photographs of which are stored in the most secret archives. One of the photographs showed a shadow. She was also visible in the infrared range. In the next picture, a cigar-shaped object about 20 km is clearly visible. At this moment, "Phobos-2" was to launch modules on the satellite to study the surface.
A mysterious monolith on the surface of Phobos.
NASA has a photograph of a monolith on the surface of Phobos. American astronaut Edwin Aldrin claims that this monolith is not of natural origin, and everyone who looks at the picture can be convinced of this. It should be noted that NASA does not comment on the presence of this photograph in its archives.
Alien station or simple asteroid?
So what exactly is Phobos? The answer is far from obvious. The ideal orbit and its position in the equatorial plane raises doubts about the capture of an asteroid by Mars and turning it into a satellite. Smooth chains of craters can equally be the result of an unusual fall of meteorites and the skeleton of an alien station. The monolith may be a fragment of a meteorite that fell on the surface of Phobos. Whether the very pictures of the apparatus near Mars and the monolith exist is still not known for sure. Emptiness is another controversial point. Their existence has been proven, but their form and number are still in question.
Phobos looks more like a spaceship than the moon.
Phobos is now approaching Mars at a rate of several meters per year. Over time, it will get so close to the planet that it will be torn to pieces. if nothing is clear about its origin by that time, it will forever remain a mystery.