Phobos, a Martian moon with stripes, draws its distinct grooves from the rolling rocks

A Brown University study highlights the origin of the particular marks of Mars' Phobos, arguably the strangest and most interesting moon ever.

Phobos is far from all other moons of generally perfect shape, which is distinguished not only by its shape, but also by the grooves and craters it has. Researchers and scientists wonder how these indentations were created.

Stickney Crater

While other moons also have bumps and scratches, Phobos is particularly noteworthy because it is full, which is why it is understandable that it easily stirs anyone's curiosity. One of its most notable features is its Stickney Crater, a 9-km-diameter hole that makes it hard to miss.

The Stickney Crater was formed about 150 years ago when a massive rock hit Phobos. Around this unique and unmissable site, grooves seem to extend from the point of impact.

According to research published in Planetary and Space Science, the moving blocks, resulting from Stickney's impact, could have been the reason behind the grooves. To prove it, the researchers simulated how massive rocks had rolled on the moon from the big crater and thus concluded that the stones of this event had created the furrows.

The senior researcher, Ken Ramsley, who was surprised by the results of the experiment, believes that their efforts are of great help in determining other possible explanations of the train paths. He said that at the beginning the team did not expect what will be the result of the study.

Computer models also explained why other grooves are not directly aligned to the site of huge impact. This would be due to the size of Phobos and its low gravity which made Stickney's rocks continuously turn around the moon, which also explains the other overlapping grooves.

"It's like a ski jump, the rocks keep moving, but suddenly there's no more soil, and they end up doing that suborbital flight over that area," Ramsley said. about parts of Phobos devoid of grooves.

Explanation "plausible"

It may have been 12 hours, Ramsley said. However, it should be noted that the study is only a possible reason, not a definitive answer to the problem, the researchers judging the results "plausible".

NASA saw the grooves for the first time in the 1970s. Since then, many of the same researches have explained the relationship between Stickney's crater and patterns.

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