Scientists theorize that
many millions of years ago,
Mars had rings, just like Saturn.
It looks like the red planet could be due for
a new set of rings in the future.
The four gas giants in our solar system
Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and Saturn.
All have ring system surrounding them.
Of those, Saturn has the largest.
And Mars could join the club.
Scientists studying Martian moons,
Phobos and Deimos, suggest that
Mars could have had several more moons.
Including one up to 20 times larger than Phobos
Over billions of years,
these moons could have been destroyed
and become part of an ancient ring system.
Could Phobos and Deimos be next on the Martian moon chopping block?
But if you're looking to cut something out of your life, it should be all your unneeded subscriptions.
Well, with Truebill, you can improve your personal finances and manage your subscriptions all in one place.
They can even cancel unwanted subscriptions for you with just a tap!
You never have to get on the phone or try to hunt down the cancel button - they do all the hard work for you.
It doesn't stop there. Truebill can also help you build your savings, lower your bills, monitor your credit score and create a budget that works for your life.
And you can do this all in one place with just a few clicks.
With Truebill, I reduced my credit card bill in just minutes.
All I had to do was upload a photo of my bill, and they negotiated it down for me.
And to help me save for my 2022 goals, I set up auto deposits into a Truebill smart savings account.
They allow me to choose the exact amount and frequency I want to set aside, and I can withdraw whenever I want.
Take back control of your finances today by visiting TRUEBILL.COM/WHATIF.
That's TRUEBILL.COM/WHAT IF and start achieving your personal financial goals now.
How am I in two cheese-of-the-months clubs?
Phobos is orbiting Mars only about 6,000 km (3,700 mi)
from the planet's surface.
And it’s slowly losing altitude.
Eventually, it will reach the Roche Limit.
This is the closest a big space body can come to a planet
and still be held together by its gravitational forces
For Phobos,
the estimated Roche limit is 5,470 km (3,400 mi) from Mars.
At this point,
the tidal forces of Mars would start to pull the moon apart.
After breaking into carbonaceous chondrite meteorites,
the stony rocks and dust would form a thin, dark ring around the planet.
You'd find that the smaller Martian moon, Deimos, would still exist.
That’s because
it orbits Mars from a comfortable 20,069 km (12,470 mi) from the surface.
Deimos would now mark the outer edge of this new ring.
This dramatic reshaping of objects in Mars' orbit
could have a big impact on
any plans you could have to leave Earth and settle on Mars.
Well, maybe not your plans,
but more like the plans of your future descendants.
Scientists expect that Phobos won't get ripped apart into rings for
about 50 million years.
The development of rings around the red planet would be
a challenge for space flights.
It would be difficult to navigate
or transport people and resources.
Even the most routine trips on or off Mars would become hazardous rides.
And a ring system would block some sunlight,
having huge effects on our human settlements on the surface.
Mars is already a frozen planet
with an average surface temperature of -63 °C (-81 °F).
So things would get even colder.
Let's hope your descendants brought enough warm spacesuits.
And even more danger would lie ahead.
Eventually, all the objects in the ring
would come crashing down on Mars.
Big rocks would leave massive new craters on the planet’s surface.
If it's anything like what happens on Saturn,
Martian settlers could face massive storms of rock and dust
falling to the surface at 10,000 kg (22,000 lb) per second.
The future of humanity would depend on
our ability to create new technologies
to blast apart these falling objects before they crush us.
Luckily for us,
this would happen sometime between
1 million and 100 million years after the ring forms.
We'd have plenty of time to come up with a solution.
Maybe we could just nuke all those space rocks
before they crush our Martian dream.
Well, that's a story for another WHAT IF.