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How the Mars Moon Phobos Got Its Grooves

Billions of years ago, Mars suffered from numerous big impacts, and the resulting backwash ultimately scarred the surface of Phobos, one of the Red Planet’s two tiny moons, researchers say.

In 1976, images from NASA’s Viking orbiter revealed that the surface of Phobos is covered in numerous parallel, channel-like grooves. Over the years, researchers have come up with many hypotheses to explain the odd features, but the origin of the satellite’s grooves are still heavily debated today.

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