Discovery of Phobos
Descubrimiento de Fobos
- Date
- 1877 · confidence high
- Place
- United States Naval Observatory, Washington, D.C., United States
- Credited to
- Asaph Hall
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Hall discovered Phobos, the larger of Mars's two tiny moons, after a systematic search with the Naval Observatory's 66 cm refractor; days earlier he had found the other one, Deimos.
Deimos, the other Martian moon, was found by Hall just six days earlier, on 12 August 1877.
What it led to
- Confirmation that Mars has moons, after centuries of speculation
- Study of their orbits as a test of celestial mechanics
- Later target of Mars probes and missions