The Doomed Harvest Moon of Mars
Phobos orbits well below the
synchronous orbit radius for Mars (the radius at which one revolution
of a satellite would exactly equal the length of a martian day).
Tidal forces on Phobos are so powerful that the satellite is
losing altitude at about 1.8 meters per century. In about 50
million years, Phobos will either crash onto the surface of Mars
or (more likely) break up into a ring. [more
information] |
