004: Rings
According to a new hypothesis, Mars had a little ring action going on at some point in the past. In previous posts I pointed out that our Moon gives the Earth its tilt, which was a vital part of the development of the Human species and our civilization. Mars as well has a similar tilt but lacks the causality for such a configuration. No cause and effect relationship. It’s just randomly so.
But now there is a theory that Mars’ tilt was created by ancient rings, which later resulted in not rings but a moon. That moon was later broken up back into rings. Those rings later became moons, and so on. Such that today’s two Martian moons Phobos and Deimos, are the grandchildren of the first original moon, being called proto-Phobos.¹ I guess the idea is that the ring-moon cycle orbital mass decreases over time.
This natural explanation seems plausible. It’s not as fun as my thoughts on ancient astronauts or ancient aliens pursuing a terraforming project. But, minus the razzle-dazzle, it would be more logical. Definitely not as fun.
The first opportunity to explore this possibility will be when the Japanese space agency (JAXA) will acquire soil samples from Phobos in 2024. Until the samples are returned to the Earth, I will consider my crazy ideas still valid.
Reference/Image:
Strickland, Ashley. (2020). Mars' moons may hint that the planet once had rings. CNN. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/03/world/mars-rings-moons-scn/index.html.
Gill, Kevin. (2017). Rings over Mars. Flickr. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinmgill/33453129762.