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Know0neSpecial t1_ixpdje2 wrote

By slowly they mean sssslooooooowwwwlyyy

"Phobos gets closer to Mars by about 2 cm per year, and it is predicted that within 30 to 50 million years it will either collide with the planet or break up into a planetary ring."

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PlasticMansGlasses t1_ixpppcb wrote

I wanted to know if this would happen within our lifetime. Probably not hey?

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seehp t1_ixprnr0 wrote

Unless there is quite some progress in physics or medicine, no.

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froggison t1_ixqn369 wrote

Or what if we get a bunch of rockets and push it into Mars?

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nzl_river97 t1_ixqrsdj wrote

Most efficient way is to push it backwards to slow it down and reduce the orbit. Pushing it directly to Mars will just make the orbit more eccentric.

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seehp t1_ixqz61f wrote

Good plan. I like that. Tom Cruise will probably want to be there to film an action film sequence.

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Khavak t1_ixs9095 wrote

or accelerate it into an eccentric orbit and then deaccelerate it at apoapsis

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Lollister t1_ixseqqj wrote

Sooo you play ksp or real astrophysican ?

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nzl_river97 t1_ixslb2i wrote

I did a few papers on astrophysics in uni, but also a lot of ksp haha

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Trumpologist t1_ixpg1ar wrote

30-50M years isn’t all that much

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Kaio_ t1_ixpl2e0 wrote

Saturn's rings will be gone by then

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Spindelhalla_xb t1_ixq77l5 wrote

Really? How come?

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CameronMH t1_ixqhm6f wrote

Solar wind and gravity will eventually clear all the debris, ring systems aren't around for very long on a cosmological time scale

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froggison t1_ixqngn0 wrote

It's possible that Earth used to have visible rings. The theory is that a large body collided with Earth ~4 billion years ago, the debris of which formed visible rings, and those rings eventually formed our moon.

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Academic_Ocelot3917 t1_ixso7c2 wrote

I've heard that Earth might have a ring in the future from the space debris if it isn't cleaned up.

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FlyingSpacefrog t1_ixsrrsr wrote

The total mass of all objects humans have sent into space thus far is insignificant compared to even one of Saturns rings.

Any orbital debris less than 1000 km in altitude is likely to reenter the atmosphere and vaporize itself within the next century, so it has very little chance of forming a permanent planetary ring.

We sort of do have a ring out at geosynchronous orbit already, but it’s very spaced out and consists mostly of intact satellites that are still operational, with another ring right next to it of satellites that are retired and out of fuel which will remain on their current path for millions of years before gravitational interactions from the moon have enough time to significantly impact their orbits. So if we do get a visible ring of debris around earth my bet is it’s going to be near geostationary orbit in altitude

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Roland_Zakalwe t1_ixq9xvi wrote

Jupiter and Saturn are going through a rough period, so it looks like a divorce is inevitable.

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GonnaGoFar t1_ixpzxre wrote

Possibly, the Sheppard Moons may be able to maintain at least part of the structure.

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haha_supadupa t1_ixqfqcf wrote

Rings travel from planet to planet

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david4069 t1_ixqt5rz wrote

Rings are for local transport. You want to go to another planet, you're gonna need to use the stargate.

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Ragnangar t1_ixs5gao wrote

My in-laws will definitely have left by then. Most definitely.

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peterabbit456 OP t1_ixrgsmd wrote

On the geological time scale that is sort of medium fast. Rivers change their courses over ~5 million year time scales. Continents split and crash together over ~200 million year time scales. Titan will lose its lakes in about 300 million years.

Mars has changed so little in the last 3 billion years that the Phobos breakup is like a daily headline. Of course, we will land on it in the next few years and probably disassemble Phobos over the next 1000 years, so this all might become moot soon.

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zZEpicSniper303Zz t1_ixq4pc2 wrote

It's more likely we'll boost them into a higher orbit by then.

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Karcinogene t1_ixqyfs6 wrote

Or just disassemble them completely to build all kinds of things

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LurkmasterP t1_ixqmpz1 wrote

What if we try to boost them lower instead, so we can watch what happens?

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zZEpicSniper303Zz t1_ixqmu2l wrote

Probably wouldn't be good for the people living on Mars, but it's a great way of maintaining a claim on an ever more self sufficient colony.

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Xaqv t1_ixq3f0n wrote

Moons may come and moods may go but the ring is the symbol of eternal revolvement.

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InGenAche t1_ixqy3yd wrote

Can't wait to see it as a planetary ring!

Oh damn....

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ironinside t1_ixqzipj wrote

Planetary ting would look pretty cool on Mars. Galactic fashion.

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