As shown in recent research, Mars' biggest moon Phobos is being torn apart by the Red Planet's strong gravitational forces. The peculiar patterns spanning Phobos' surface, which have been originally thought to be scarring from an ancient asteroid collision, are dust-filled canyons that have become larger as the moon is stretched out by gravity forces.
Phobos is on a collision path with Mars, having been gouged and nearly broken by a massive impact crater and pummeled by millions of meteorite strikes. Phobos is the bigger of Mars' two moons, measuring 17 by 14 by 11 miles or 27 by 22 and 18 kilometers.
Phobos is approaching Mars at a pace of six feet (1.8 meters) per hundred years; if it continues at this rate, it will either collide with Mars within 50 million years or fragment into a ring. The 6-mile (9.7-kilometer) crater Stickney is its most noticeable feature, with its impact producing stripe patterns throughout the moon's surface. Stickney was discovered during Mars Global Surveyor to also be covered in fine dust and to have rocks tumbling down its sloping surface, as stated by NASA.
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