Phobos – Astronomy Now

Phobos transits the Sun, captured by Mars Rover

27 April 2022 Mark Armstrong

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover’s Mastcam-Z camera has captured Phobos, the larger of Mars’ two small moons (27 x 22 x 18 kilometres), as it transited the Sun’s disc on 2 April

Mars’ moon Phobos may be a chip off the old block

26 September 2018 Astronomy Now

Re-evaluating data collected 20 years ago by NASA’s now retired Mars Global Surveyor, researchers say the martian moon Phobos could have originated in the aftermath of a titanic planetary collision that blasted surface material into space.

Find Martian moons Phobos and Deimos at the Red Planet’s closest approach

30 July 2018 Ade Ashford

Do you like extreme observing challenges? If you own a quality telescope of 25-cm (10-inch) aperture or larger and have excellent sky conditions, then you might just glimpse Phobos and Deimos, the diminutive moons of Mars around the time that the Red Planet is closest to Earth on 31 July.

Mars moons likely formed from more modest impact

19 April 2018 Astronomy Now

Sophisticated computer modeling indicates Mars’ two small moons likely formed as the result of a relatively modest-size impactor, not a much larger body as previously theorized.

Martian moons appear in motion

1 April 2018 Astronomy Now

The Martian moons Phobos and Deimos appear to be in motion in this animation created from 19 images taken by NASA’s orbiting Mars Odyssey probe.

NASA confirms contribution to Japanese-led Mars mission

20 November 2017 Stephen Clark

NASA announced Thursday it will fund development of a scientific instrument that will fly on Japan’s Martian Moons Exploration mission, a robotic probe set for launch in 2024 to bring back the first samples from Mars’ largest moon Phobos.

Examining Mars’ moon Phobos in a different light

17 October 2017 Astronomy Now

NASA’s longest-lived mission to Mars has gained its first look at the Martian moon Phobos, pursuing a deeper understanding by examining it in infrared wavelengths.

How Martian moon Phobos became the ‘Death Star’

13 October 2016 Astronomy Now

The dominant feature on the surface of Mars’ largest satellite, Phobos, is Stickney — a 9-kilometre-wide mega crater that spans nearly half the moon. The crater lends Phobos a physical resemblance to the planet-destroying Death Star in the film “Star Wars.” But over the decades, understanding the formation of such a massive crater has proven elusive for researchers.

Mystery solved: Martian moons formed by a giant impact

5 July 2016 Astronomy Now

Where did the two natural satellites of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, come from? For a long time, their shape suggested that they were captured asteroids. However, the shape and course of their orbits contradict this hypothesis. Two independent and complementary studies now provide an answer: these satellites formed from the debris of a gigantic collision between Mars and a protoplanet one-third its size.

Solving the mystery of how Mars’ moon Phobos formed

1 March 2016 Astronomy Now

In late November and early December 2015, NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission made a series of close approaches to the Martian moon Phobos. Among the data returned were spectral images of Phobos in the ultraviolet. The images will allow MAVEN scientists to better assess the composition of this enigmatic object, whose origin is unknown.