Joint research between NASA and Durham University… Study with a supercomputer
Asteroid destroyed by the gravity of Mars … Debris is concentrated to form a satellite
Phobos‘ and ‘Deimos’. Provided by NASA”/>
Research has shown that the satellites ‘Phobos’ and ‘Deimos’ of Mars, the fourth planet in the solar system, are clumps of debris created when an asteroid that came close to Mars a long time ago was destroyed. Until now, the process of creating the two satellites was a mystery, but this conclusion was reached after calculations using a supercomputer.
Researchers from NASA’s Ames Research Center and Durham University in the UK announced on the 20th (local time) that two Mars satellites, Phobos and Deimos, were formed from debris from an asteroid impact that had come to Mars at the time went away The results of the research were published in the international academic journal ‘Icarus’.
Phobos has a radius of 11 km and is located 9,300 km from the center of Mars. Deimos has a radius of 6 km and orbits at a distance of 23,400 km from Mars.
The researchers ran hundreds of scenarios where an asteroid approaches Mars using their supercomputer. Size and speed of an asteroid. The supercomputer was operated by changing the distance to Mars. Then, in many cases, the main asteroid group was unable to overcome the gravity of Mars and broke apart, and it was determined that half of the resulting debris formed a disk around Mars. The disk-shaped remnants of the asteroid were concentrated over a long period of time, eventually forming two satellites.
“We determined what kind of orbit the debris forms around Mars,” the researchers said in NASA’s official explanatory material.
In the space science community, the idea that asteroid debris became material for a Mars satellite has been challenged by the idea that a particular asteroid passed close to Mars and was captured intact and became a satellite Phobos and Deimos are so similar in shape to common asteroids that this capture theory is convincing. Both satellites are not spherical like the Earth’s moon. It is shaped like a lumpy potato.
However, this research team’s analysis adds more weight to the idea that the fragments formed when the asteroid broke apart to form Phobos and Deimos.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) plans to send a probe to Phobos in 2026. The goal is to collect samples from the surface of Phobos and bring them back to Earth. In this regard, the research team said, “This study is expected to be helpful in selecting objects on which the probe should focus or study on Phobos.
Mars and its moons, as well as the processes involved in moon formation in general. It challenges existing theories and opens up new avenues for research into the history of the Martian system and the dynamics of celestial bodies.
Guest 1: Dr. Mark Whieldon, Astrophysicist at Durham University
Guest 2: Dr. Peter Schultz, Research Scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center
Interviewer: Hello, Dr. Whieldon and Dr. Schultz. Thank you for joining us today to discuss the groundbreaking research on the formation of Phobos and Deimos, Mars’ two moons. Could you please tell us a bit about the joint research project between NASA and Durham University, and how the supercomputer was used to simulate the gravitational effect on the asteroid that hit Mars?
Guest 1: Thank you for having us. Yes, our research team used NASA’s Ames Supercomputer to simulate the gravitational effects of Mars on an incoming asteroid with a size range of 100 to 400 kilometers. We wanted to understand how much energy the gravitational force of Mars would have had to exert on the asteroid to break it apart and form the two moons, as well as investigate the possibility of capturing an intact asteroid as a satellite. Through these simulations, we found that an asteroid with a specific mass and size range could have been disrupted by Mars’ gravitational pull, creating a disk of debris that eventually formed Phobos and Deimos.
Guest 2: That’s right. The simulations allowed us to see the complex dynamics involved in this process, and we arrived at a consistent scenario where the asteroid broke apart due to the tidal forces of Mars’ gravity. This process happened over time as the debris circularized and the objects in the disk collided, eventually accreting into the two moons we see today.
Interviewer: Wow, that’s fascinating! So, the implication of these findings is that Phobos and Deimos might not be captured asteroids, but instead, they could have originated from the debris created by this asteroid collision. Could you elaborate on the significance of this discovery?
Guest 1: Absolutely. Previous theories had assumed that Phobos and Deimos were captured asteroids, but our research suggests that they were actually formed from the debris of an asteroid that was disrupted by Mars’ gravity. This finding helps us better understand the early history of