Abstract
Two mutually exclusive hypotheses concerning the origin of the martian satellites have commonly been proposed: (1) they were formed in the vicinity of Mars, on orbits not very different from their present orbits, or (2) they originated far from Mars and were somehow captured1–3. Hypothesis (1) had been favoured because the satellites' orbits are nearly circular and equatorial. More recent Viking results imply that the satellites are composed of carbonaceous material4,5, suggesting an asteroidal origin. We show here that the satellites have remained close to their laplacian plane throughout their orbital evolution. Thus Phobos and Deimos need not have originated near the martian equator as previously believed3, but could have been captured in Mars' orbital plane instead, and later evolved to their present inclinations. This new result seems to make hypothesis (2) more plausible.
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Cazenave, A., Dobrovolskis, A. & Lago, B. Evolution of the inclination of Phobos. Nature 284, 430–431 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1038/284430a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/284430a0
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