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A NASA study using a series of supercomputer simulations\u00a0reveals\u00a0a potential new solution to a longstanding Martian mystery: How did Mars get its moons? The first step, the findings say, may have involved the destruction of an asteroid.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The research team, led by Jacob Kegerreis, a postdoctoral research scientist at NASA\u2019s Ames Research Center in California\u2019s Silicon Valley, found that an asteroid passing near\u00a0Mars\u00a0could have\u00a0been\u00a0disrupted\u00a0\u2013 a nice way of saying \u201cripped apart\u201d \u2013\u00a0by the Red Planet\u2019s strong gravitational pull.<\/p>\n
The team\u2019s simulations show the resulting\u00a0rocky\u00a0fragments being\u00a0strewn into\u00a0a variety of orbits around Mars. More than half the fragments would have escaped the Mars system, but others would\u2019ve stayed in orbit. Tugged by the gravity of both Mars and the Sun, in the simulations some of the remaining asteroid pieces are set on paths to collide with one another, every encounter further grinding them down and spreading more debris.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Many collisions later, smaller chunks and debris from the former asteroid could have settled into a disk encircling the planet. Over time, some of this material is likely to have clumped together, possibly forming Mars\u2019 two small moons,\u00a0Phobos\u00a0and\u00a0Deimos.<\/p>\n \n