Phobos May Have Come from Massive Impact on Mars

Posted by LinuxBender on Tuesday October 02, 2018 @01:25PM
from the sci-news.com dept.

http://www.sci-news.com/space/phobos-impact-mars-06445.html

( 5 comments | 53 points | on HN )

Re:Phobos May Have Come from Massive Impact on Mars by CLGrimes on Tuesday October 02, 2018 @05:30PM (#18125878)

It would make sense that Phobos, like Earth's moon, was the result of an impacting object versus a captured asteroid. I would think that captured objects, such as D-class asteroids would eventually have an orbit degrade over the course of a few millennia.

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Re:Phobos May Have Come from Massive Impact on Mars by saagarjha on Tuesday October 02, 2018 @06:22PM (#18126195)

Well, Phobos is predicted to spiral in within 50 million years or so.

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Re:Phobos May Have Come from Massive Impact on Mars by remote_phone on Tuesday October 02, 2018 @10:39PM (#18127274)

Wouldn’t an impact that large have destabilized Mars’s orbit?

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Re:Phobos May Have Come from Massive Impact on Mars by Zardoz84 on Wednesday October 03, 2018 @01:31AM (#18127830)

Earth had a bigger impact that result on the creation of the Moon, and we are here.

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Re:Phobos May Have Come from Massive Impact on Mars by remote_phone on Friday October 05, 2018 @06:05PM (#18152114)

That’s never been substantiated beyond a theory. The same question would exist for that theory as well.

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