Mars moon emerges from the dark
Europe's Mars Express spacecraft has taken its most detailed image yet of the Red Planet's largest moon, Phobos.
The photo was taken from a distance of about 200km (124 miles) from the irregular-shaped satellite and shows the side of the object that faces Mars.

Scientists hope to explain the origin of a network of grooves that extend from the equator to the north pole.

Phobos is slowly falling down to Mars and is expected to crash into the planet in the next few million years.

Competing theories

Measuring about 27km by 19km, Phobos (from the Greek for fear) is the larger of two moons in orbit around Mars.

Its smaller companion, Deimos, is about half Phobos' size and orbits Mars more distantly.

Phobos is locked in a so-called "death spiral", which means it is in an orbit that is gradually pulling it on a collision course with the surface of the planet.

It orbits Mars three times a day, and is so close to the planet's surface that in some locations it can never be seen.

There are competing theories of Phobos' origin. One theory proposes that the satellite is a captured asteroid. The moon appears to be composed of C-type rock, similar to blackish carbonaceous chondrite asteroids.

But some scientists say there is evidence that Phobos and Deimos are by-products of the break-up of a huge moon that once circled Mars.

The Mars Express image has a resolution of about seven metres per pixel.


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/sci/tech/4004001.stm

Hopefully we will send probes to both the moons of mras soon, so we can learn much much more about mars and its moons. It is such an amazing place, we must find out as much as we can about it and learn everything physically possible!

Hmm, doesn't look or act like a moon...so why is it called a moon?

A "moon" is a name we have given to satellites orbiting a planet, reguardless of its orbital path. As far as I can remember, a satelight has to be relatively large... (Otherwise all of the dust to bus sized particles making up Saturns rings would be counted as satelights... Personally, I wouldn't want to be the one to name all of those...)

On another note... Since Deimos is so close to the planet, do you think there are massive gravitational forces taking place on it? How much longer until those forces tear it apart? Do you think that we, in our lifetimes, could actually see the beginnings of a Mars Ring? You have to admit, that would be interesting to see!

the real question you should be asking your self is if a event like that happens in are life time will it send hundreds of smaller asteroids towards earth or other planets?