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Mars will have rings

  • 24-11-2015 12:40AM
    #1
    cowboyBuilder
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,419 ✭✭✭



    Gravity will rip Martian moon apart to form dust and rubble ring

    Mars will become the fifth ringed planet as the largest of its two moons disintegrate - in 20 to 70 million years, according to new data

    Mars is on course to become the fifth ringed planet in the solar system according to astronomers, who claim that its mini moon, Phobos, will one day disintegrate into a hoop of dust and rubble.

    The small ball of rock is spiralling inexorably down towards Mars; when the tidal forces become too strong to withstand, Phobos will be ripped apart to leave a huge ring of material, much like that seen around Saturn, researchers say.

    The act of cosmic violence would make Mars the first rocky world in the solar system to sport a ring, the others being the gas giants Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

    20 - 70 Million years away, can't wait ! :D





    full article

    http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/nov/23/gravity-will-rip-mars-moon-apart-dust-rubble-ring


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