A new theory explaining the origin of natural satellites of Mars was created by a graduate student at Purdue University (United States of America) named Andrew Hesselbrock. The theory was published in the authoritative scientific journal Nature Geoscience, and is briefly reported on the website rg.ru.
“The study of Mars in the 21st century has accumulated enough data to argue that moons orbiting Mars did not emerge as described in the standard paradigm. Phobos, in particular, was formed as a result of the collision of the Red Planet with a certain huge object. Fragments of which, thrown into outer space, eventually formed rings similar to those possessed by Saturn. Then the rings collapsed as a result of gravitational influence and turned into satellites Phobos and Deimos,”says the researcher.
Hesselbrock believes that in the future Phobos will collapse and turn into a ring, which will then concentrate again into a single celestial body. This process, as the scientist notes, has occurred more than once.
Recent advances in the study of the planet Mars indicate that the second satellite of the fourth planet, Deimos, has a slightly different fate - it is assumed that one day it will leave the orbit of Mars and rush somewhere away.
Kolesnikov Andrey