Марс – это твердая планета земной группы small diameter (only 7 thousand km), which abundance of iron gives a red color. She was named in honor of the ancient Roman god of war. This cosmic body is similar to the Earth in terms of changing seasons. The atmosphere consists mainly of nitrogen, hydrogen, neon, oxygen and argon. The main attraction is the extinct volcano Olympus, whose width is 6 thousand kilometers, and its height is almost 27 kilometers. In addition to the weak magnetic field, there is another feature: there are bacteria on Mars, the result of their vital activity is the immediately decomposing methane.
These findings were made after detectionclots of this gas are large. The temperature on the planet is from +20 to -153 degrees. Even frozen air and ice are there. And the day looks like the earth, only more than 50 minutes. This planet has always been the subject of controversy and discussion. Scientists tried to find out how many satellites of Mars, whether there is life, whether there are bacteria that can be transferred there, to exist in those conditions, whether there ever was a higher civilization. In recent centuries, there have been a lot of not always explicable discoveries, but there will be plenty of new curious facts in history.
Does Mars have satellites?
This planet has 2 satellites that have becomeknown since 1829. Until that time, many astronomers had wondered how many satellites Mars had. In 1610, Johann Kepler suggested that there are two of them. According to his theory, the number of such increases exponentially with the distance of the planets from the Sun.
Later writer Jonathan Swift in one of the chaptersGulliver's Travels wrote about the presence of two moons. After it became known how many satellites Mars had, on one of them, on Deimos, a crater was named after Swift. He is not the only person who assumed the existence of such: Voltaire went down in history not only as a talented writer, but also as the “owner” of the crater of the same name on Deimos. By the way, these two grooves are located close to each other.
As named and why
The largest space object rotatingaround the “red planet” is Phobos. His name, meaning “fear,” is also taken from mythology. This is the son of Mars and Venus, and therefore could not call him any other way. Its form is asymmetrical, not at all the same as that of most satellites.
This planetesimal (big pebble) on itsThe surface has only one “landmark” - it is the Stickney crater, which was named after the wife of Asaf Hall, the discoverer of this object. Deimos - the satellite of Mars No. 2 - is much smaller than its “neighbor”. In addition to incomprehensible continuous furrows, on this shapeless stone there are craters Swift and Voltaire.
What is the trajectory of Phobos and Deimos?
Они отличаются своими орбитами.Phobos manages to go around the planet 2 times per day, moves closer to it. There is an assumption that he is in danger: it is possible that after a few millennia, under the influence of gravity, he will collapse on Mars and break. Scientists tried to find out its mass, but according to calculations it turned out that it is very small. But how is this possible? There was a hypothesis that there is a void inside it. Deimos, on the contrary, may someday "run away" from the planet, since it is gradually moving away from it. This is also due to their size: Deimos has a diameter of 13 km, and Phobos is approximately 10 kilometers more.
How did they come about
Mars’s natural satellites consist mainly ofregolith (fragments of rock) and ice, the composition of which is not the same as that of the “red star”. The origin of them still does not have a specific official version. There is a hypothesis that there was one asteroid, broken into two blocks. They say that Mars pulled them to him from the side of Jupiter. They are younger than the planet itself.
Phobos, due to the assumption of the emptiness inside,found the legend that he is not a natural body. This is a spaceship created by a higher mind. To check this, you need a lot of time, money and effort. It is necessary to investigate its soil, depth and exact composition.
Now you know how many satellites Mars has and what they are all about.
