A planet very close to Earth is turning into a monster, tearing apart the moon

A new study has found chilling evidence that the moon Phobos - one of the Solar System's unluckiest satellites - is about to become a thing of the past.

Not as beautiful as Earth's moon, Mars' moon Phobos is small and oddly shaped, often compared to. a potato. Now, a study published in The Planetary Science Journal shows signs that the "potato" is about to become a thing of the past.

Mars and its moons - (Photo: NASA/LIVE SCIENCE)

Using data recorded by NASA's probes, a team of authors from the School of Aerospace Engineering at Tsinghua University, the School of Aeronautical Science and Engineering at Beihang University in Beijing (China) and the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona in Tucson (USA) argue that Phobos is about to be torn apart by Mars.

The most obvious sign is the strange parallel grooves on the surface of this 27km diameter Moon, which appear due to the red planet's extremely different gravitational pull.

The grooves were previously thought to be the scars of an ancient asteroid impact, but new data shows these dusty canyons are widening.

In fact, Phobos was already an unlucky moon, trapped in a "death spiral" of its mother planet.

Live Science quoted the authors' explanation: Our moon orbits Earth in a stable manner, but Phobos is getting closer and closer to Mars , and even if it escapes the mid-air tear, it will eventually be pulled straight into its parent planet, with an estimated collision occurring in about 40 million years.

Phobos's impact would have left Mars with a huge scar, but would also have shattered it and completely wiped it off the list of Solar System moons.

However, scientists are inclined to believe that it was torn apart before hitting the Martian surface, because as it gets closer to its parent planet, tidal forces become greater than Phobos' own gravity, which is keeping it from being torn apart.

It is possible that after breaking up Phobos will create a small ring around the planet similar to Saturn's rings.

The authors hope this can be further demonstrated through the Mars Moon Explorer (MMX) mission that the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will launch in 2024.