Discover 3

OUT THERE

POWERED BY ASTRONOMY MAGAZINE

March 2018^ DISCOVER^57

PUT A RING ON IT

It’s no Saturn, but one day Mars may have rings of its own. Researchers predict that gravitational forces will tear the tiny moon Phobos apart as

it spirals closer to the Red Planet. From this violent end, a serene set of rings (albeit darker and less spectacular than Saturn’s) could emerge as

soon as 25 million years from now. Read about how this will happen, starting on page 58.  ERNIE MASTROIANNI; ILLUSTRATION BY TUSHAR MITTAL