DOCSLIB.ORG

The Asteroid Florence 3122

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Asteroid Florence 3122 The Asteroid Florence 3122 By Mohammad Hassan BACKGROUND • Asteroid 3122 Florence is a stony trinary asteroid of the Amor group. • It was discovered on March 2nd 1981 by Astronomer Schelte J. ”Bobby” Bus at Siding Spring Observatory. It was named in honor of Florence Nightingdale, the founder of modern nursing. • It has an approximate diameter of 5 kilometers. It also orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.0-2.5 astronomical unit once every 2 years and 4 months (859 days). • Florence rotates once every 2.4 hours, a result that was determined previously from optical measurements of the asteroid’s brightness variations. • THE MOST FASINATING THING IS THAT IT HAS TWO MOONS, HENCE WHY IT IS A PART OF THE AMOR GROUP. • The reason why this Asteroid 3122 Florence is important is because it is a near-earth object with the potential of hitting the earth in the future time. Concerns? • Florence 3122 was classified as a potentially hazardous object because of its minimum orbit intersection distance (less than 0.05 AU). This means that Florence 3122 has the potential to make close approaches to the Earth. • Another thing to keep in mind was that Florence 3122 minimum distance from us was 7 millions of km, about 20 times farthest than our moon. What actually happened? • On September 1st, 2017, Florence passed 0.047237 AU from Earth. That is about 7,000 km or 4,400 miles. • From Earth’s perspective, it brightened to apparent magnitude 8.5. It was also visible in small telescopes for several nights as it moved from south to north through the constellations. • This asteroids most recent flyby was on August 29, 1930, with a distance of 0.05239 AU. The next one will be on September 2, 2057, at a distance of 0.049952 Au’s. TWO MOONS??!!?? • During the flyby, radar observations showed that Florence has two moons. There is an inner and outer moon. • The inner moon has an estimated diameter of 180 to 240 meters. The outer moon is somewhere between 300 to 360 meters. • The inner moon has a period of approximately 7 hours, on the other hand, the outer moon has a period of about 21-23 hours. • Each moon is elongated and tidally locked to the main body, aka Florence. Image via NASA/JPL Center for Near-Earth Object Studies. Why TWO MOONS (satellites)?? • There is no definite answer to this question, but there is an idea. • The two moons probably formed as a loose material spun away from the main body as its rotation accelerated due to the YORP effect. • YORP effect is the change in the rotation state (spin period) of an asteroid in heliocentric orbit due to the scattering of solar radiation off the surface of the body and emission of the body’s own thermal radiation. Videos and Images of Asteroid 3122 Florence • The labeled dates on this chart mark the asteroid’s location at 11 pm. (Eastern Daylight Time) http:// earthsky.org/todays-image/photos-asteroid-3122-florence-aug-sep-2017 https://www.virtualtelescope.eu/2017/09/04/potentially-hazardous-asteroid-3122-florence-online-event-an-epic-success/ Diagram via SkyandTelescope.com. Recent asteroids near Earth • This chart shows the cumulative number of known Near- Earth asteroids versus time. These asteroids are larger than 140 m in size. It is estimated that about 93% of these are bigger than 1 km. ASTEROID DEFENSE? • NASA has build an office in 2016: The planetary Defense Coordination Office. It is tasked with helping find dangerous asteroids and comets, and its leading US government efforts to develop a plan to respond to an actual impact threat. • Some advancements made to deal with asteroids are one a kinetic impactor, which is, a spacecraft that slams into the asteroid to move its orbit. The second thing is a gravity tractor, which is, a spacecraft gravity pulling the asteroid. Third is laser ablation, vaporizing rock to create jets that push the asteroid, and the last thing, final resort, is nuclear disruption, rapid vaporizing of rocks on one part of an asteroid. Work Cited • https:// www.virtualtelescope.eu/2017/09/04/potentially-hazardous-asteroid-3122-florence-online-event-an-epic-success/ • http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/31/us/asteroid-florence-earth-fly-by-trnd/index.html • http://earthsky.org/todays-image/photos-asteroid-3122-florence-aug-sep-2017 • http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/asteroid-1981-et3-3122-florence-pass-earth-2017-binoculars • http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/see-asteroid-florence-fly-by-earth-this-week/ • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3122_Florence • https://www.space.com/51-asteroids-formation-discovery-and-exploration.html ANY QUESTIONS AND OR COMMENTS?.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Phobos, Deimos: Formation and Evolution Alex Soumbatov-Gur
    Phobos, Deimos: Formation and Evolution Alex Soumbatov-Gur To cite this version: Alex Soumbatov-Gur. Phobos, Deimos: Formation and Evolution. [Research Report] Karpov institute of physical chemistry. 2019. hal-02147461 HAL Id: hal-02147461 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02147461 Submitted on 4 Jun 2019 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Phobos, Deimos: Formation and Evolution Alex Soumbatov-Gur The moons are confirmed to be ejected parts of Mars’ crust. After explosive throwing out as cone-like rocks they plastically evolved with density decays and materials transformations. Their expansion evolutions were accompanied by global ruptures and small scale rock ejections with concurrent crater formations. The scenario reconciles orbital and physical parameters of the moons. It coherently explains dozens of their properties including spectra, appearances, size differences, crater locations, fracture symmetries, orbits, evolution trends, geologic activity, Phobos’ grooves, mechanism of their origin, etc. The ejective approach is also discussed in the context of observational data on near-Earth asteroids, main belt asteroids Steins, Vesta, and Mars. The approach incorporates known fission mechanism of formation of miniature asteroids, logically accounts for its outliers, and naturally explains formations of small celestial bodies of various sizes.
    [Show full text]
  • Lecture 12 the Rings and Moons of the Outer Planets October 15, 2018
    Lecture 12 The Rings and Moons of the Outer Planets October 15, 2018 1 2 Rings of Outer Planets • Rings are not solid but are fragments of material – Saturn: Ice and ice-coated rock (bright) – Others: Dusty ice, rocky material (dark) • Very thin – Saturn rings ~0.05 km thick! • Rings can have many gaps due to small satellites – Saturn and Uranus 3 Rings of Jupiter •Very thin and made of small, dark particles. 4 Rings of Saturn Flash movie 5 Saturn’s Rings Ring structure in natural color, photographed by Cassini probe July 23, 2004. Click on image for Astronomy Picture of the Day site, or here for JPL information 6 Saturn’s Rings (false color) Photo taken by Voyager 2 on August 17, 1981. Click on image for more information 7 Saturn’s Ring System (Cassini) Mars Mimas Janus Venus Prometheus A B C D F G E Pandora Enceladus Epimetheus Earth Tethys Moon Wikipedia image with annotations On July 19, 2013, in an event celebrated the world over, NASA's Cassini spacecraft slipped into Saturn's shadow and turned to image the planet, seven of its moons, its inner rings -- and, in the background, our home planet, Earth. 8 Newly Discovered Saturnian Ring • Nearly invisible ring in the plane of the moon Pheobe’s orbit, tilted 27° from Saturn’s equatorial plane • Discovered by the infrared Spitzer Space Telescope and announced 6 October 2009 • Extends from 128 to 207 Saturnian radii and is about 40 radii thick • Contributes to the two-tone coloring of the moon Iapetus • Click here for more info about the artist’s rendering 9 Rings of Uranus • Uranus -- rings discovered through stellar occultation – Rings block light from star as Uranus moves by.
    [Show full text]
  • Alexandre Amorim -.:: GEOCITIES.Ws
    Alexandre Amorim (org) 2 3 PREFÁCIO O Boletim Observe! é uma iniciativa da Coordenação de Observação Astronômica do Núcleo de Estudo e Observação Astronômica “José Brazilício de Souza” (NEOA-JBS). Durante a reunião administrativa do NEOA-JBS em maio de 2010 foi apresentada a edição de Junho de 2010 para apreciação dos demais coordenadores do Núcleo onde houve aprovação unânime em usar o Boletim Observe! como veículo de informação das atividades e, principalmente, observações astronômicas. O Boletim Observe! é publicado mensalmente em formato eletrônico ou impresso separadamente, prezando pela simplicidade das informações e encorajando os leitores a observar, registrar e publicar os eventos astronômicos. Desde a sua primeira edição o Boletim Observe! conta com a colaboração espontânea de diversos astrônomos amadores e profissionais. Toda edição do Observe! do mês de dezembro é publicado um índice dos artigos do respectivo ano. Porém, desde aquela edição de Junho de 2010 foram publicados centenas de artigos e faz-se necessário consultar assuntos que foram tratados nas edições anteriores do Observe! e seus respectivos autores. Para isso publicaremos anualmente esse Índice de Assuntos, permitindo a consulta rápida dos temas abordados. Florianópolis, 1º de dezembro de 2018 Alexandre Amorim Coordenação de Observação Astronômica do NEOA-JBS 4 Ano I (2010) Nº 1 – Junho 2010 Eclipse da Lua em 26 de junho de 2010 Amorim, A. Júpiter sem a Banda Equatorial Sul Amorim, A. Conjunção entre Júpiter e Urano Amorim, A. Causos do Avelino Alves, A. A. Quem foi Eugênia de Bessa? Amorim, A. Nº 2 – Julho 2010 Aprendendo a dimensionar as distâncias angulares no céu Neves, M.
    [Show full text]
  • Predictable Patterns in Planetary Transit Timing Variations and Transit Duration Variations Due to Exomoons
    Astronomy & Astrophysics manuscript no. ms c ESO 2016 June 21, 2016 Predictable patterns in planetary transit timing variations and transit duration variations due to exomoons René Heller1, Michael Hippke2, Ben Placek3, Daniel Angerhausen4, 5, and Eric Agol6, 7 1 Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 3, 37077 Göttingen, Germany; [email protected] 2 Luiter Straße 21b, 47506 Neukirchen-Vluyn, Germany; [email protected] 3 Center for Science and Technology, Schenectady County Community College, Schenectady, NY 12305, USA; [email protected] 4 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA; [email protected] 5 USRA NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA 6 Astronomy Department, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA; [email protected] 7 NASA Astrobiology Institute’s Virtual Planetary Laboratory, Seattle, WA 98195, USA Received 22 March 2016; Accepted 12 April 2016 ABSTRACT We present new ways to identify single and multiple moons around extrasolar planets using planetary transit timing variations (TTVs) and transit duration variations (TDVs). For planets with one moon, measurements from successive transits exhibit a hitherto unde- scribed pattern in the TTV-TDV diagram, originating from the stroboscopic sampling of the planet’s orbit around the planet–moon barycenter. This pattern is fully determined and analytically predictable after three consecutive transits. The more measurements become available, the more the TTV-TDV diagram approaches an ellipse. For planets with multi-moons in orbital mean motion reso- nance (MMR), like the Galilean moon system, the pattern is much more complex and addressed numerically in this report.
    [Show full text]
  • Abstracts of the 50Th DDA Meeting (Boulder, CO)
    Abstracts of the 50th DDA Meeting (Boulder, CO) American Astronomical Society June, 2019 100 — Dynamics on Asteroids break-up event around a Lagrange point. 100.01 — Simulations of a Synthetic Eurybates 100.02 — High-Fidelity Testing of Binary Asteroid Collisional Family Formation with Applications to 1999 KW4 Timothy Holt1; David Nesvorny2; Jonathan Horner1; Alex B. Davis1; Daniel Scheeres1 Rachel King1; Brad Carter1; Leigh Brookshaw1 1 Aerospace Engineering Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder 1 Centre for Astrophysics, University of Southern Queensland (Boulder, Colorado, United States) (Longmont, Colorado, United States) 2 Southwest Research Institute (Boulder, Connecticut, United The commonly accepted formation process for asym- States) metric binary asteroids is the spin up and eventual fission of rubble pile asteroids as proposed by Walsh, Of the six recognized collisional families in the Jo- Richardson and Michel (Walsh et al., Nature 2008) vian Trojan swarms, the Eurybates family is the and Scheeres (Scheeres, Icarus 2007). In this theory largest, with over 200 recognized members. Located a rubble pile asteroid is spun up by YORP until it around the Jovian L4 Lagrange point, librations of reaches a critical spin rate and experiences a mass the members make this family an interesting study shedding event forming a close, low-eccentricity in orbital dynamics. The Jovian Trojans are thought satellite. Further work by Jacobson and Scheeres to have been captured during an early period of in- used a planar, two-ellipsoid model to analyze the stability in the Solar system. The parent body of the evolutionary pathways of such a formation event family, 3548 Eurybates is one of the targets for the from the moment the bodies initially fission (Jacob- LUCY spacecraft, and our work will provide a dy- son and Scheeres, Icarus 2011).
    [Show full text]
  • The British Astronomical Association Handbook 2017
    THE HANDBOOK OF THE BRITISH ASTRONOMICAL ASSOCIATION 2017 2016 October ISSN 0068–130–X CONTENTS PREFACE . 2 HIGHLIGHTS FOR 2017 . 3 CALENDAR 2017 . 4 SKY DIARY . .. 5-6 SUN . 7-9 ECLIPSES . 10-15 APPEARANCE OF PLANETS . 16 VISIBILITY OF PLANETS . 17 RISING AND SETTING OF THE PLANETS IN LATITUDES 52°N AND 35°S . 18-19 PLANETS – EXPLANATION OF TABLES . 20 ELEMENTS OF PLANETARY ORBITS . 21 MERCURY . 22-23 VENUS . 24 EARTH . 25 MOON . 25 LUNAR LIBRATION . 26 MOONRISE AND MOONSET . 27-31 SUN’S SELENOGRAPHIC COLONGITUDE . 32 LUNAR OCCULTATIONS . 33-39 GRAZING LUNAR OCCULTATIONS . 40-41 MARS . 42-43 ASTEROIDS . 44 ASTEROID EPHEMERIDES . 45-50 ASTEROID OCCULTATIONS .. ... 51-53 ASTEROIDS: FAVOURABLE OBSERVING OPPORTUNITIES . 54-56 NEO CLOSE APPROACHES TO EARTH . 57 JUPITER . .. 58-62 SATELLITES OF JUPITER . .. 62-66 JUPITER ECLIPSES, OCCULTATIONS AND TRANSITS . 67-76 SATURN . 77-80 SATELLITES OF SATURN . 81-84 URANUS . 85 NEPTUNE . 86 TRANS–NEPTUNIAN & SCATTERED-DISK OBJECTS . 87 DWARF PLANETS . 88-91 COMETS . 92-96 METEOR DIARY . 97-99 VARIABLE STARS (RZ Cassiopeiae; Algol; λ Tauri) . 100-101 MIRA STARS . 102 VARIABLE STAR OF THE YEAR (T Cassiopeiæ) . .. 103-105 EPHEMERIDES OF VISUAL BINARY STARS . 106-107 BRIGHT STARS . 108 ACTIVE GALAXIES . 109 TIME . 110-111 ASTRONOMICAL AND PHYSICAL CONSTANTS . 112-113 INTERNET RESOURCES . 114-115 GREEK ALPHABET . 115 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS / ERRATA . 116 Front Cover: Northern Lights - taken from Mount Storsteinen, near Tromsø, on 2007 February 14. A great effort taking a 13 second exposure in a wind chill of -21C (Pete Lawrence) British Astronomical Association HANDBOOK FOR 2017 NINETY–SIXTH YEAR OF PUBLICATION BURLINGTON HOUSE, PICCADILLY, LONDON, W1J 0DU Telephone 020 7734 4145 PREFACE Welcome to the 96th Handbook of the British Astronomical Association.
    [Show full text]
  • Exploration of the Planets – 1971
    Video Transcript for Archival Research Catalog (ARC) Identifier 649404 Exploration of the Planets – 1971 Narrator: For thousands of years, man observed the rising and setting Sun, the cycle of seasons, the fixed stars, and those he called wanderers, or planets. And from these observations evolved his notions of the universe. The naked eye extended its vision through instruments that saw the craters on the Moon, the changing colors of Mars, and the rings of Saturn. The fantasies, dreams, and visions of space travel became the reality of Apollo. Early in 1970, President Nixon announced the objectives of a balanced space program for the United States that would include the scientific investigation of all the planets in the solar system. Of the nine planets circling the Sun, only the Earth is known to us at firsthand. But observational techniques on Earth and in space have given us some idea of the appearance and movement of the planets. And enable us to depict their physical characteristics in some detail. Mercury, only slightly larger than the Moon, is so close to the Sun that it is difficult to observe by telescope. It is believed to be one large cinder, with no atmosphere and a day-night temperature range of nearly 1,000 degrees. Venus is perpetually cloud-covered. Spacecraft report a surface temperature of 900 degrees Fahrenheit and an atmospheric pressure 100 times greater than Earth’s. We can only guess what the surface is like, possibly a seething netherworld beneath a crushing, poisonous carbon dioxide atmosphere. Of Mars, the Red Planet, we have evidence of its cratered surface, photographed by the Mariner spacecraft.
    [Show full text]
  • Low Velocity Impacts Mars's Inner Moon, Phobos, Is Located Deep In
    Phobos: Low Velocity Impacts Mars’s inner moon, Phobos, is located deep in the planet’s gravity well and orbits far below the planet’s synchronous orbit. Images of the surface of Phobos, in particular from Viking Orbiter 1, MGS, MRO, and MEX, reveal a rich collisional history, including fresh‐looking impact craters and subdued older ones, very large impact structures (compared to the size of Phobos), such as Stickney, and much smaller ones. Sources of impactors colliding with Phobos include a priori: A) Impactors from outside the martian system (asteroids, comets, and fragments thereof); B) Impactors from Mars itself (ejecta from large impacts on Mars); and C) Impactors from Mars orbit, including impact ejecta launched from Deimos and ejecta launched from, and reintercepted by, Phobos. In addition to individual craters on Phobos, the networks of grooves on this moon have also been attributed in part or in whole to impactors from some of these sources, particularly B. We report the preliminary results of a systematic survey of the distribution, morphology, albedo, and color characteristics of fresh impact craters and associated ejecta deposits on Phobos. Considering that the different potential impactor sources listed above are expected to display distinct dominant compositions and different characteristic impact velocity regimes, we identify specific craters on Phobos that are more likely the result of low velocity impacts by impactors derived from Mars orbit than from any alternative sources. Our finding supports the hypothesis that the spectrally “Redder Unit” on Phobos may be a superficial veneer of accreted ejecta from Deimos, and that Phobos’s bulk might be distinct in composition from Deimos.
    [Show full text]
  • Scattering Law Fits for Dual Polarization Radar Echoes of Asteroids Using Arecibo Observatory Planetary Radar Data
    49th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference 2018 (LPI Contrib. No. 2083) 2569.pdf SCATTERING LAW FITS FOR DUAL POLARIZATION RADAR ECHOES OF ASTEROIDS USING ARECIBO OBSERVATORY PLANETARY RADAR DATA. L. F. Zambrano-Marin1,2, A. K. Virkki2, E. G. Rivera-Valentín2,3, P. A. Taylor2; 1Escuela Internacional de Posgrado, Universidad de Granada, Spain ([email protected]), 2Arecibo Observatory, Universities Space Research Association (USRA), Arecibo, PR, 3Lunar and Planetary Institute, USRA, Houston, TX. Introduction: S-band (2380 MHz, 12.6 cm) senses of polarization, selecting primarily targets radar is an ideal method for studying the decimeter- where a roughly spheroidal shape can be assumed scale surface structures on asteroids that will affect in based on radar images. Selected targets had situ exploration. Beyond constraining near-surface continuous wave (CW; frequency only) spectra as properties, radar data enables the refinement of well as radar images with sufficient resolution to orbits, the determination of target sizes, and estimates obtain high backscatter signal per pixel at a range of of shapes and rotation periods with which the incidence angles. From CW data we obtain the radar Yarkovsky (orbit) and YORP (rotational) non- cross section (RCS or σ), the circular polarization gravitational effects [1] can be studied. Following the ratio (CPR or μC), and the radar albedo (�). The work by Virkki et. al. [2], Thompson et al. [3], and addition of the OC and SC components gives the total Wye et. al. [4], we test models of radar scattering radar cross section, which has been used as a using dual-polarization radar observations to measurement of the reflectivity of the target [5].
    [Show full text]
  • Study of Main-Belt and Near-Earth Asteroids with TRAPPIST and Larger Telescopes
    Study of Main-Belt and Near-Earth Asteroids with TRAPPIST and larger telescopes MARIN FERRAIS Supervisor: EMMANUËL JEHIN University of Liège STAR Institute June 14th, 2019 0/20 Introduction The origins of the Solar System Why to study asteroids ? ! Pristine material ! Building blocks of the planets ! Dynamical evolution of the Solar System ! Impact history Artist view of the early Solar System (NASA) ! Threat to Earth 1/20 Main-Belt Asteroids (MBAs) • More than 700 000 asteroids known in the Main-Belt • About 200 larger than 100 km • Various shapes, sizes and compositions ! but lack of observations ! Asteroids in the Solar System (25143) Itokawa (JAXA) (253) Mathilde (NASA) (4) Vesta (NASA) 2/20 Optical asteroid lightcurves: master thesis Shape model of (20) Massalia (ISAM) 3/20 Data acquisition/reduction TRAPPIST telescopes • TRAPPIST-South: ESO La Silla Observatory (Chile) • TRAPPIST-North: Oukaïmeden Observatory (Morocco) ! Twin robotic telescopes ! D = 0.6 m ! Good observing sites ! A lot of observation time ! Large sky coverage ! Long observing runs using both telescopes • https://www.trappist.uliege.be/ 4/20 TRAPPIST rotational lightcurves Phased lightcurve of (89) Julia (master thesis) 5/20 What can we learn from asteroid lightcurves? Period spectrum of (89) Julia with the FALC method Shape model of (89) Julia • Determination of the rotation period (Fourier analysis) • Rotation state (excited or relaxed rotation) • Spin axis coordinates (lightcurves inversion) • Global convex shape model (lightcurves inversion) 6/20 Build the phased
    [Show full text]
  • Possibilities for Life in the Inner Solar System We Will Now Begin Going
    Possibilities for Life in the Inner Solar System We will now begin going systematically through other possible locations for life (not necessarily intelligent life) in the Solar System. Some possibilities are obvious: Mars and Jupiter’s moon Europa are examples. However, in the interest of continuing open-mindedness, in this lecture we will discuss our Moon, Mercury, the moons of Mars, and Venus. Next lec- ture will focus on Mars, which has a real possibility of having had life at one point, or even having it now below the surface. As we discuss each object, we will keep in mind our basic requirements for life: chemical building blocks, liquids in some place, energy, and stability. Our Moon The Moon is the closest astronomical object to the Earth, and the only one on which we can see significant surface features with our naked eyes (the Sun is too bright, and everything else is pointlike or, like the Andromeda galaxy, too dim). As a result, it has from time immemorial inspired many fanciful notions, including that the Moon is inhabited. In fact, life on the Moon was the subject of one of the most famous hoaxes ever perpetrated. On August 25, 1835 the New York Sun, a small newspaper with a daily circulation of about 4,000, printed a remarkable story on page 2. According to them Sir John Herschel (son of the discoverer of Uranus) had been observing the Moon with a new telescope based in South Africa. The results were astounding. He had seen herds of bison, many beavers, a rich variety of plants, and, most intriguingly, traces of artificial features with smoke coming out of them.
    [Show full text]
  • Martian Moon's Orbit Hints at an Ancient Ring of Mars
    Martian Moon’s Orbit Hints at an Ancient Ring of Mars PRESS RELEASE DATE June 2, 2020 CONTACT Rebecca McDonald Director of Communications SETI Institute [email protected] +1 650-960-4526 Photo credit: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/mars-moons/deimos/in-depth/ June 2, 2020, Mountain View, CA – Scientists from the SETI Institute and Purdue University have found that the only way to produce Deimos’s unusually tilted orbit is for Mars to have had a ring billions of years ago. While some of the more massive planets in our solar system have giant rings and numerous big moons, Mars only has two small, misshapen moons, Phobos and Deimos. Although these moons are small, their peculiar orbits hide important secrets about their past. For a long time, scientists believed that Mars’s two moons, discovered in 1877, were captured asteroids. However, since their orbits are almost in the same plane as Mars’s equator, that the moons must have formed at the same time as Mars. But the orbit of the smaller, more distant moon Deimos is tilted by two degrees. “The fact that Deimos’s orbit is not exactly in plane with Mars’s equator was considered unimportant, and nobody cared to try to explain it,” says lead author Matija Ćuk, a research scientist at the SETI Institute. “But once we had a big new idea and we looked at it with new eyes, Deimos’s orbital tilt revealed its big secret.” This significant new idea was put forward in 2017 byĆ uk’s co-author David Minton, professor at Purdue University and his then-graduate student Andrew Hesselbrock.
    [Show full text]