Moons of Mars Moons of Mars The two moons of Mars are Phobos and Deimos. Both were discovered by Asaph Hall in August 1877 and are named after the Greek mythological twin characters Phobos (panic/fear) and Deimos (terror/dread) who accompanied their father Ares, god of war, into battle. Ares was known as Mars to the Romans. Phobos orbits closer to Mars, with a semi-major axis of to Deimos' . The existence of the moons of Mars had been speculated about since the moons of Jupiter were discovered. It is known that when Galileo, as a hidden report about him having observed two bumps
Mars hoax about twice as far away for the same apparent size. It has nine times the mass of the Moon, and would have about the same tidal effect (nine times the larger mass divided by relative distance cubed). The hoax has resurfaced a number of times since 2003, often showing an altered image of twin moons over the Nilov Monastery, and may continue to do so, always announcing an imminent close Earth–Mars approach. The content of the original email, although almost entirely correct for August 27, 2003, has falsely been redated to announce a new close Earth–Mars approach—the real close approach