Deimos

Mars II

Deimos Facts

• Deimos is the smaller and outermost of Mars's two moons:
  • distance from Mars: 23,459 km
  • diameter: 12.6 km (15 x 12.2 x 11)
  • mass: 1.8e15 kg
  Deimos is the smallest known moon in the solar system.

• Pronounced "DEE mos"

• In Greek mythology, Deimos is one of the sons of Ares (Mars) and Aphrodite (Venus); "deimos" is Greek for "panic".

• Discovered 1877 August 10 by Hall, photographed by Viking 1 in 1977.

• Deimos and Phobos are composed of carbon-rich rock like C-type asteroids and ice. Both are heavily cratered.

• Deimos and Phobos are probably asteroids perturbed by Jupiter into orbits that allowed them to be captured by Mars.

Pictures

1. (above) Mosaic of Deimos 35k jpg; 181k gif

2. the other side 13k gif

3. a slightly different view 50k gif; 8k jpg
4. shaded relief map 104k gif

More about Deimos

• from LANL

Open Issues

• There is no completely satisfactory theory as to how Deimos and Phobos came to be in orbit around Mars.