Which planet has moons named Phobos and Deimos?

The story behind the answer

Mars is the planet whose moons are named Phobos and Deimos. They are Mars’s two known natural satellites, both small, irregularly shaped bodies orbiting the Red Planet.

American astronomer Asaph Hall discovered Deimos on August 12, 1877, and Phobos six days later at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. Their names come from Greek mythology: Phobos represents fear or panic, while Deimos represents terror or dread. They were said to accompany their father Ares, the Greek counterpart of the Roman god Mars.

Phobos is the larger and innermost moon. It circles Mars in about 7.66 hours, faster than Mars rotates, so it appears to rise in the west and set in the east from the Martian surface. Deimos is smaller, farther out, and takes about 30.3 hours to orbit.

Their origin remains unsettled. Scientists have debated whether they are captured asteroids, remnants of an impact on Mars, or fragments of an older disrupted moon.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Sept. 2026

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