A Violent Impact Might Have Changed Mars’ Potato-Shaped Moon
A Nature Astronomy study says a 320-meter asteroid strike likely spread debris across Deimos and left its surface covered in loose regolith.
- A new study published Tuesday in Nature Astronomy suggests a single asteroid strike dramatically reshaped Mars' outer moon, Deimos, using images from the European Space Agency's Hera mission to link the impact to its polar crater and global dust layer.
- Scientists have long questioned why Deimos appears significantly smoother and dustier than its heavily cratered sibling moon, Phobos, lacking a confirmed origin story for its surface features since NASA's Viking 2 orbiter first captured high-resolution images in 1977.
- Researchers at the University of Bern used their Bern Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics code to run about 100 simulations, identifying a slanting, 45-degree impact from a 1,049-feet-wide asteroid as the most likely scenario reshaping Deimos.
- Deimos's fractured, porous interior dampened the impactor's force, preventing total destruction while blanketing the surface in debris that left ancient crater outlines visible beneath the dust layer in Hera images.
- Japan's Martian Moons eXploration mission, MMX, arrives at the moons in 2027, where it will collect data to potentially test these predictions and solve longstanding origin mysteries about Deimos and its sibling.
14 Articles
14 Articles
Mars has two small moons whose origin —how they came to orbit the red planet— has not yet been confirmed, but new research could explain some of the mysteries surrounding Deimos, the more distant satellite.
Mars's Funky Moon Deimos was Shaped by an Impact
Mars' moon Deimos has a large crater on its southern pole. It's also covered by a layer of regolith so deep it buries many other, smaller craters. New research shows that an impact is responsible for both, and that the moon is rather fragile and porous, like a rubble pile asteroid.
One Giant Asteroid Impact May Have Reshaped Mars’ Tiny Moon Deimos
A single asteroid impact may have dramatically reshaped Deimos, the smaller of Mars’ two moons, creating both a huge depression near its south pole and the dusty surface that covers the moon today. An international team of researchers reached this conclusion after running about 100 detailed computer simulations and comparing the results with observations from […] The post One Giant Asteroid Impact May Have Reshaped Mars’ Tiny Moon Deimos appeare…
A recent study reveals that Deimos, one of Mars' moons, was shaped by a significant impact on its surface. The research, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, investigates the moon's origin and geology, offering new perspectives on its formation. Characteristics of Mars' moons: Deimos and its sister moon Phobos are known for their irregular shapes and small sizes. Deimos is approximately 12 km in diameter, while Phobos measures about 26 km.…
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