After the Moon, Planet Mars has been the most favorite destination for space researchers as they keep unraveling deep mysteries of this beautiful Red Planet every now and then. Recently, researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have shed some light on how Phobos, Mars' largest moon, got a physical resemblance to the planet-destroying Death Star shown in the film ‘Star Wars.’
According to the researchers, a mega crater Stickney covers almost half of the surface of Phobos and that is what makes Phobos appear like ‘Death Star’. According to this research that was published in Geophysical Review Letters, the physicists at LLNL have showcased how an asteroid or comet impact could have created Stickney crater without destroying Phobos completely.
Megan Bruck Syal, an author on the paper and member of the LLNL planetary defense team, said, "We've demonstrated that you can create this crater without destroying the moon if you use the proper porosity and resolution in a 3D simulation. There aren't many places with the computational resources to accomplish the resolution study we conducted."
The study showed that there is a range of possible solutions for the size and speed of the impactor, but Syal says one possible scenario is an impact object 250 meters across traveling close to 6 kilometers per second (kps). It must be noted that the simulations in this study show that fracture patterns in the crust of Phobos would be nothing like the straight, long, and parallel grooves. On the contrary, the simulations do support the possibility of slow-rolling boulders mobilized by the impact causing the grooves.
The researchers also highlighted that “something as big and fast as what caused the Stickney crater would have a devastating effect on Earth."
According to Syal, "If NASA sees a potentially hazardous asteroid coming our way, it will be essential to make sure we're able to deflect it. We'll only have one shot at it, and the consequences couldn't be higher."
Stay tuned to Gizmodo for more updates form the world of Science.
After the Moon, Planet Mars has been the most favorite destination for space researchers as they keep unraveling deep mysteries of this beautiful Red Planet every now and then. Recently, researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have shed some light on how Phobos, Mars' largest moon, got a physical resemblance to the planet-destroying Death Star shown in the film ‘Star Wars.’According to the researchers, a mega crater Stickney covers almost half of the surface of Phobos and that is what makes Phobos appear like ‘Death Star’. According to this research that was published in Geophysical Review Letters, the physicists at LLNL have showcased how an asteroid or comet impact could have created Stickney crater without destroying Phobos completely.Megan Bruck Syal, an author on the paper and member of the LLNL planetary defense team, said, "We've demonstrated that you can create this crater without destroying the moon if you use the proper porosity and resolution in a 3D simulation. There aren't many places with the computational resources to accomplish the resolution study we conducted."The study showed that there is a range of possible solutions for the size and speed of the impactor, but Syal says one possible scenario is an impact object 250 meters across traveling close to 6 kilometers per second (kps). It must be noted that the simulations in this study show that fracture patterns in the crust of Phobos would be nothing like the straight, long, and parallel grooves. On the contrary, the simulations do support the possibility of slow-rolling boulders mobilized by the impact causing the grooves.The researchers also highlighted that “something as big and fast as what caused the Stickney crater would have a devastating effect on Earth."According to Syal, "If NASA sees a potentially hazardous asteroid coming our way, it will be essential to make sure we're able to deflect it. We'll only have one shot at it, and the consequences couldn't be higher."Stay tuned to Gizmodo for more updates form the world of Science.
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