Mars’ moons could be the remains of an ill-starred asteroid that got too close to the Red Planet.
A shredded asteroid origin could help explain mysterious features of the small, odd-shaped moons, scientists suggest in the January issue of Icarus.
Where most moons are big round orbs, Mars’ Phobos and Deimos are small lumpy potatoes.
There are two main ideas for how the moons formed. One is that the moons actually were asteroids that were caught by Mars’s gravity. But that idea doesn’t explain the moons’ circular, stable orbits around Mars’ equator.
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