Mars is going to get its own ring when its moon gets ripped apart by gravity, scientists say

Phobos, the largest of the two moons around the Red Planet, is getting gradually closer — and will one day slam into it

One of Mars’ moons is getting closer to the Red Planet and could create a new ring for it, according to scientists.

Phobos, its biggest moon, is floating towards Mars and will eventually become too close to it and get ripped apart, according to scientists. When it does it will get its own ring.

That will make it the first rocky planet in our solar system to have one. The rest are the gas giants: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Scientists have been watching Phobos and found that it is getting 1.8cm closer to Mars per year. That means that in 20 to 70 million years — depending on conditions in space — it will start touching the edge of Mars’s atmosphere.

It isn’t clear what will happen when it gets there. It could either break up and get ripped apart as it orbits, or it could slam into Mars.

That isn’t going to happen for as many as 40 million years. But once it starts happening, the moon will break up quickly — Phobos appears to be made of weak and already-damaged material, which will probably break up under the strain of the tidal forces.

That broken-up moon will form a Martian ring that will last for millions of years. It will probably be of a similar density to that of Saturn’s, the scientists say.

Anything big that survives that process will probably fall onto Mars.