some question about Mar's moons

I've worked on the search program for ATS, either i'm not doing the right keywords or nothing has been mentioned...

Anyway, I remember reading some interesting things about the Martian moons and am wondering if anyone can help me.

1. The two moons are a "recent" feature of Mars, more probably asteroids plucked from the asteroid belt.

2. The Soviets launched an investigation of the moons. On of them, I believe Phobos (?) had an interesting crater with what appeared to be either a roadway or some kind of tracks entering the crater, like an undergound complex.

3. The Soviets also had a live video feed "interrupted" by a projectile. Experts believed it to be a meteor impact, even though seconds before the malfunction, a large eliptical shadow was observed streaking across the surface. Somehow, the last couple seconds between seeing the shadow and loss of transmission has/ is being held secret; some people believe this to have been a missle.

Has anyone heard of these, or have further information? If there is anything else of interest about those moons, please let me know.

Hie thyself over to the BadAstronomy board and ask there:
www.badastronomy.com...

Not only will the astronomers answer all of those in detail, but they'll also give you some cool links to look at.

Try this:

www.skiesare.demon.co.uk...

One theory that is bounced around astronomy circles (and one I find very interesting) regarding the origin of Mars moons involves a paleo-surface impact of an asteroid.

Somewhere around 1 billion years ago, Mars contained a far denser atmosphere than currently. (Currenly, Mars has 1/100 Earth normal atmospheric presure, almost a hard vaccuum. About 1 billion years ago, it is estimated to have had 1/3 to 1/2 earth normal atmospheric pressure. Also, judging from the presence of "red bed" iron oxide formations known to exist on mars, it is assumed that this early atmosphere contained a far higher concentration of oxygen)

According to the asteroid-impact theory, an asteroid impacted at a very oblique angle (flatter than 45 degrees). The resulting shock wave would have ripped a significant percentage of the atmosphere out into orbit. In this model, Phobos and/or Deimos are thought to potentially be either large chunks of crust that were flung out into orbit by the impact, or possibly portions of the original impactor.

The question comes up, if this is the case, where is the impact crater? An impact of such magnitude could easily penetrate the crust, releasing a large quantity of magma, creating a "mare", filling in any possible impact features.