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
Moons of Jupiter closer to Jupiter; these serve as sources of the dust that makes up Jupiter's rings. The remainder of Jupiter's moons are irregular satellites whose prograde and retrograde orbits are much farther from Jupiter and have high inclinations and eccentricities. These moons were probably captured by Jupiter from solar orbits. Twenty-seven of the irregular satellites have not yet been officially named. The physical and orbital characteristics of the moons vary widely. The four Galileans are all over in diameter; the largest Galilean, Ganymede, is the ninth largest object in the Solar System, after the Sun and seven of the planets, Ganymede