Overview

• NASA researchers have used supercomputer simulations to explore a new hypothesis for the formation of Mars' moons.
• The study suggests that Mars' gravitational pull could have disrupted a passing asteroid, resulting in debris that eventually formed Phobos and Deimos.
• The simulations indicate that enough asteroid fragments could have remained in orbit to create a disk, leading to the moons' formation.
• This new model challenges previous theories, offering different predictions about the moons' properties that future missions could test.
• The upcoming Martian Moons Exploration mission by JAXA aims to gather samples from Phobos to help determine the moons' origins.