The Martian Satellites

History of telescopic observations of the Martian satellites

This article intends to review the different studies of the Mars satellites Phobos and Deimos realized by means of ground-based telescopic observations as well in the astrometry and dynamics domain as in the physical one. This study spans the first period of investigations of the Martian satellites since their discovery in 1877 through the astrometry and the spectrometry methods, mainly before ...

Effects of mass transfer between Martian satellites on surface geology

Impacts on planetary bodies can lead to both prompt secondary craters and projectiles that reimpact the target body or nearby companions after an extended period, producing so-called ‘‘sesquinary” craters. Here we examine sesquinary cratering on the moons of Mars. We model the impact that formed Voltaire, the largest crater on the surface of Deimos, and explore the orbital evolution of resultin...

The Galilean satellites.

NASA's Galileo mission to Jupiter and improved Earth-based observing capabilities have allowed major advances in our understanding of Jupiter's moons Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto over the past few years. Particularly exciting findings include the evidence for internal liquid water oceans in Callisto and Europa, detection of a strong intrinsic magnetic field within Ganymede, discovery of h...

Martian Impact Cratering and Martian Layered Sediments

The Stromlo Missing Satellites Survey

According to cosmological theory, density fluctuations of Cold Dark Matter (CDM) form the first structures in the Universe. The gravitational potential wells of these dark matter halos suck in primordial gas and provide the seeds for the formation of stars via energy dissipation and cooling, a billion years after the Big Bang. The observational Universe today is filled with these galaxies, the ...