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Jump
to: Deimos, Phobos
DEIMOS:
Deimos is the smaller of Mars' two
moons. It was named after an attendant of the Roman God, Mars. It is also
Latin for "panic." Deimos is a dark satellite that is composed of
black, carbonaceous chondrite. Some scientists believe that these moons
are not actually satellites, but asteroids that have been captured
instead. Scientists
believe this because Deimos and Phobos are not
completely round. In fact, they are not round at all! The dimensions of Deimos is
7.5*6.1*5.5 km. Deimos and Phobos, the second moon, have
a lot of craters. However, Deimos is smoother and it's
craters are partially filled. Here are some facts about Mars' moon,
Deimos. Deimos was discovered by Asaph Hall in 1877 using a telescope
at the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. (also the
residence of the vice president of the United States!) The mass of Deimos
is 1.8e15 kg. The rotational period of this moon is 1.26244 days,
or about 30 hours, and the magnitude is 12.4 Vo.
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PHOBOS: Phobos is the
larger of the two moons. It was named after an attendant of the Roman God,
Mars. It is also Latin for "fear." Phobos is a dark moon that is
composed of a black, carbonaceous chondrite. Like Deimos, some scientists
believe that Phobos is actually a captured asteroid instead of a moon.
This moon was discovered by Asaph Hall
in 1877. Its mass is 1.08e16 kg. Phobos is
9,380 km from Mars, but is slowly moving closer to Mars. Scientists predict that in
another 100 million years, Phobus will actually crash into Mars. Phobos is,
at its longest, 14 miles (22 kilometers) across. Around three
feet (1 meter) of it is a layer of dust built up over millions of
years of meteorite collisions. Its rotational period is 0.3191 days, or around
7 hours, and it has a magnitude of 11.3 Vo.
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Picture of
Phobos taken by the Voyager 1. |

Montage of
pictures taken by the Voyager1 to make a whole picture of Phobos. |
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