[FPSPACE] Origin of Martian Moons from Binary Asteroid Dissociation

[Keith Gottschalk]

There will of course be some % of natural occurances of "ballistic
capture", "fuzzy boundary capture", "weak boundary capture". Good luck
to the next space probe designed to land & roam on Phobos & Deimos. That
last Soviet attempt came so frustratingly close to success.....  -
Keith

>>> LARRY KLAES <ljk4 at msn.com> 03/28/09 7:09 PM >>>
Origin of Martian Moons from Binary Asteroid Dissociation 
Authors: Geoffrey A. Landis
(Submitted on 19 Mar 2009)

Abstract: The origin of the Martian moons Deimos and Phobos is
controversial. One hypothesis for their origin is that they are captured
asteroids, but the mechanism requires an extremely dense martian
atmosphere, and the mechanism by which an asteroid in solar orbit could
shed sufficient orbital energy to be captured into Mars orbit has not
been well elucidated. 

Since the discovery by the space probe Galileo that the asteroid Ida
has a moon "Dactyl", a significant number of asteroids have been
discovered to have smaller asteroids in orbit about them. The existence
of asteroid moons provides a mechanism for the capture of the Martian
moons (and the small moons of the outer planets). 

When a binary asteroid makes a close approach to a planet, tidal forces
can strip the moon from the asteroid. Depending on the phasing, the
asteroid can then be captured. Clearly, the same process can be used to
explain the origin of any of the small moons in the solar system. 

Comments: Paper AAAS - 57725, American Association for Advancement of
Science Annual Meeting February 14-19, 2002, Boston MA