Mars moons to be targets of future Nasa mission
Moons could have material from Mars blasted off by asteroid impacts
Phobos could be easiest way to find out if there is life on Mars
One of the big scientific questions is how did life spread,’ says professor Jay Melosh. ‘In our solar system a lot of exchange that takes place – it’s quite possible life started on Mars and came to Earth.’
Could life ‘hop’ between worlds in a solar system in the form of living microbes carried through space on rocks?
There’s also been a great deal of discussion about the possible spread of life in the universe from star to star.’
One of the least reflective bodies in the solar system, Phobos also orbits Mars below the synchronous orbit radius.
This means that it moves around Mars faster than the planet itself rotates.
The planet has two moons, Phobos and Deimos, and has an average distance from Earth of 78million kilometres, but can come as close as 55.7million kilometres.