Why We Must Investigate Phobos, The Solar System⁘s Strangest Object

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Phobos and its smaller neighbouring moon, Deimos – both discovered in 1877 – are two of the most perplexing worlds in the solar system. ⁘They're the only objects at this stage, in the solar system, for which we have pretty much no idea what they are,⁘ says Pascal Lee at the SETI Institute in California. ⁘We know what other moons are. We know asteroids and comets. Phobos and Deimos? No idea.⁘

The Martian moons might be captured asteroids, or they could have formed from the same disc of primordial planet-stuff as Mars. Perhaps they were forged from a fiery cataclysm like the collision that crafted Earth's moon. Or maybe their origin story is something else entirely. ⁘What the heck are they?⁘ asks Abigail Fraeman at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. ⁘I think this is one of the great mysteries of planetary science.⁘