Mars may have captured and split a comet to create its two moons

Space

How the Red Planet acquired its two moons, Phobos and Deimos, is unknown – they could have formed after something collided with the planet, or started out as asteroids – but now there is a hint of a cometary origin

By Jonathan O’Callaghan

Mars has two irregularly shaped moons, an inner moon named Phobos and an outer moon named Deimos

NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSFC/Univ. of Arizona

The two moons of Mars may once have been a single comet that was ensnared and split by the planet – and an upcoming mission could find out for certain.

How Mars got its two moons, Phobos and Deimos, is a bit of a mystery. They are small, 27 and 15 kilometres across respectively, and both orbit around the planet’s equator. Astronomers have suggested that they may have formed after a collision on Mars’s…

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