Skip to main content

Table 1 Major properties of the Martian moons

From: Martian moons exploration MMX: sample return mission to Phobos elucidating formation processes of habitable planets

Parameters

Phobos

Deimos

Ref.

Mass [kg]a

1.0626 ± 0.0006 × 1016

1.51 ± 0.04 × 1015

Jacobson (2010)

Size [km]b

13.3 × 11.1 × 9.1

7.5 × 6.1 × 5.2

Thomas (1989)

Volume [km3]

5621 ± 154

997 ± 49

Thomas (1989)

Mean density [g/cm3]

1.89 ± 0.05

1.51 ± 0.07

Mass/Vol

Semi-major axis [Mars radius]

2.76

6.92

JPL Solar System Dynamics, https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/

Eccentricity

0.0151

0.00033

JPL Solar System Dynamics, https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/

Inclination [°]c

1.093

1.791

JPL Solar System Dynamics, https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/

Geometric albedo

0.07 ± 0.012

0.068 ± 0.007

Zellner and Capen (1974), Thomas et al. (1996)

  1. aGM values are converted to mass by adopting G = 6.67430 × 10−11 m3 kg−1 s−2
  2. bSemiaxes of the approximated triaxial ellipsoids
  3. cRelative to the Laplace plane