Phobos
Mars I
Phobos ("FOH bus") is the larger and innermost of Mars' two moons. Phobos is closer to its primary than any other moon in the solar system, less than 6000 km above the surface of Mars.
Phobos
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Phobos
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(f´bs), in astronomy, innermost moon, or natural satellite, of Mars.
Phobos is the inner of the two satellites of Mars. It was discovered by the American astronomer Asaph Hall in 1877. Phobos is a heavily cratered, small, irregular body that measures 26.6 km (16.5 miles) across at its widest point.
Phobos transits Sun, as seen by Mars Rover Opportunity
Phobos and Deimos both have much in common with carbonaceous (C-type) asteroids, with very similar spectra, albedo and density to those seen in C-type asteroids.
Phobos 2 operated nominally throughout its cruise and Mars orbital insertion phases, gathering data on the Sun, interplanetary medium, Mars, and Phobos.
Phobos, with its large 9 km wide Stickney crater (Phobos has dimensions of roughly 27 x 22 x 18 km).
If all of the planets are named after Roman gods, why is it that the moons of Mars (the Roman god of war) are Deimos and Phobos when those are the sons of the Greek god of war Ares?
The Answer ...
Phobos and Deimos
Two small moons, Phobos and Deimos, orbit Mars. The larger moon, Phobos, passes across the Martian sky from west to east twice a day. It would look about half as big as the full Moon does on Earth.
Phobos
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Phobos' Largest Crater
This close-up of the largest crater on Phobos, Stickney, 10 kilometers (6 miles) in diameter, shows individual boulders near the rim of the crater.
Phobos 2 reached Mars, and it gathered data on the sun, interplanetary medium, Mars, and Phobos.
Photo montage showing Gaspra (top) compared with Deimos (lower left) and Phobos (lower right), the moons of Mars. The three bodies are shown at the same scale and in nearly the same lighting conditions.
CreditNASA/JPL
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Phobos and Deimos
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Phobos:
Phobos is one of Mars' two natural satellites (moons). Phobos is a small but heavily cratered lump of rock that is roughly `potato' shaped that orbits Mars.
Phobos
The potato-shaped inner satellite of Mars (about 18 × 22 km), discovered by A. Hall in 1877. Orbital and rotation period 7h39m14s, e = 0.021, i = 1°.1. Visual geometric albedo 0.06.
Phobos is oblong in shape and heavily scarred with craters. For these reasons, it appears to be a captured asteroid. Mariner 9 first photographed the moon in 1971; Russia launched two Phobos probes to observe Phobos in July of 1988.
Phobos orbits at a distance of less than 6000 km from the surface of Mars and, with a maximum diameter of 27 km, is larger than Deimos.
PHOBOS
Phobos (meaning "fear") is the larger of the two tiny moons of Mars. It is only 13.8 miles (22.2 km) across and has a mass of 1.08 x 1016. It orbits Mars at a mean distance of 5,600 miles (9,000 km).
Phobos lies only 9378 km (less than three planetary radii) from the center of Mars and, as we saw earlier, has an orbital period of 7 hours and 39 minutes.
Phobos (Ref)
Deimos (Ref)
These are examples of what are called minor satellites: small chunks of rock in orbit around planets as compared with large satellites like the Earth's Moon.
Phobos (moon)
'Phobos' is the larger and closer of Mars ' two small natural satellites, the other being Deimos . It is named after the Greek mythology Phobos , a son of Ares ....
) in 1877. He determined the orbits of satellite
Satellite ...
Phobos to the right is a doomed world. Those who live in about 50 million years will never get to see it. Every hundred years it gets almost two meters closer to the surface of Mars.
Phobos appears to be covered with loose dust
around a meter, or yard, deep (more).
Phobos (left) and Deimos (right)
Mars has two tiny natural moons, Phobos and Deimos, which orbit very close to the planet and are thought to be captured asteroids.[74] ...
Because Phobos' orbit is below synchronous altitude, the tidal forces from the planet Mars are gradually lowering its orbit. In about 50 million years it will either crash into Mars' surface or break up into a ring structure around the planet.
The orbit of Phobos is exceptionally close to Mars. At a mean distance of 2.8 planetary radii from the centre of Mars, it is so close that, without internal strength, it would have been torn apart by gravitational (tidal) forces.
Phobos (NASA Thesaurus / NASA SP-7, 1965) A satellite of Mars orbiting at a mean distance of 9,400 kilometers.
Figure 12. Phobos (far left) and Deimos (near left). If you click on each image, you'll see a movie of each moon rotating around. Images from NASA, animations by Calvin J. Hamilton.
Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos. They are both very small, both being less than 30 km across. It is likely that they were both asteroids that have been captured by Mars.
Amalthea is potato-shaped like the Martian moon Phobos but 10 times bigger. Two large craters stand out on its heavily-cratered surface: Pan, 90 km in diameter and 8 km deep, and Gaea, 75 km in diameter and 16 km deep.
Astronomers theorize that the two , Phobos and Deimos, are captured asteroids.
ORIGIN OF THE ASTEROID BELT ...
In Greek mythology, Mars had two evil twin sons: Phobos (fear) and Deimos (terror). These are mentioned in the Iliad.
Mars also has two strange, small potato shaped moons called Phobos and Diemos. Phobos is only about 20 km (12 1/2 miles) across, and Diemos is a tiny 12 km (7 1/2 miles) across.
If humans ever fly to Mars, they will probably use one of the planet's tiny moons, Phobos and Deimos, as way stations, since landing there is much easier than on the planet itself.
In 1988 the Soviet Union sent two probes to land on the moon Phobos; both missions failed, although one relayed back some data and photographs before being lost to radio contact.
Mars has two small moons. Their names are Phobos and Deimos. They are named for the sons of Ares, the Greek god of war. Phobos means "fear," and Deimos means "panic." ...
Asaph Hall (1829-1907) was an American astronomer who discovered Mars' two moons, Phobos and Deimos, on August 12, 1877, at the U. S. Naval Observatory's 26-inch refracting telescope.
refractor, Hall on the 11th of August 1877, Professor Asaph Hall descried the moons of Mars, Deimos and Phobos; and a minute light-speck, noticed by Professor E. E. Barnard in the close neighbourhood of Jupiter on the 9th of September Barnard.
Asaph Hall discovers Phobos and Deimos, the moons of Mars.
1877 A.D.
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Jonathan Swift described the two moons of Mars even though they were not discovered until over 150 years later. For the record he described Phobos' orbital period as 10 hours (very close to the real figure of 7.6) and Deimos' as 21.
mission to Mars, launched in 1971, achieved global imaging of the surface, including the first detailed views of the Martian volcanoes, Valles Marineris, the polar caps, and the satellites Phobos and Deimos.
003; inclination of orbit to planetary equator 1°.6. Visual geometric albedo 0.06. Mariner 9 has shown that both Phobos and Deimos are locked in synchronous rotation with Mars. Discovered by A. Hall in 1897. [H76] ...
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun with an average distance to the Sun of 2.28 × 108 km or 1.52 AU. It is a superior planet in that its orbit is larger than the Earths. It has two satellites, Phobos and Deimos.
List of mountains on Venus
List of mountains on Mars
List of mountains on Io
List of craters on Mars
List of craters on Europa
List of craters on Ganymede
List of craters on Callisto
List of features on Phobos and Deimos
List of Lunar valleys ...
NOTES: Known as the Red Planet, surface is a cold desert. Has no oceans. Has same land area as Earth. Mars is named after the Roman god of war. Its two moons are named after the horses, said to pull the god's chariot, Phobos and Deimos.
fourth planet in the solar system and the last member of the hard, rocky planets (the inner or terrestrial planets) that orbit close to the Sun. The planet has a thin atmosphere, volcanoes, and numerous valleys. Mars has two moons: Deimos and Phobos.
 See also: Mars, Earth, Planet, Orbit, Solar
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