Planetary Database/Terran/Mars/Deimos

Deimos, Moon of Mars

The Planetary Database - Terran System - Mars - Deimos

Deimos was discovered by American astronomer Asaph Hall. The names were suggested by Henry Madan (1838–1901), Science Master of Eton, from Book XV of the Iliad, where Ares (the Roman god of Mars) summons Dread (Deimos) and Fear (Phobos).

Deimos was discovered on August 12, 1877 at about 07:48 UTC (given in contemporary sources as "August 11 14:40" Washington mean time using the old astronomical convention of beginning a day at noon, so 12 hours must be added to get the actual local mean time) [1].

Characteristics

Deimos is probably an asteroid that was perturbed by Jupiter into an orbit that allowed it to be captured by Mars, though this hypothesis is still in some dispute. Like most bodies of its size, Deimos is highly nonspherical with dimensions of 15×12×10 km.