Mars will one day resemble ringed neighbour Saturn: report

A new study has revealed that Mars is set to receive a planetary ring of its own – but not for a very, very long time.

The study, which was conducted by scientists from the University of California and the University of New York and was published in the journal Nature Geoscience, claims the Martian moon Phobos will eventually be crushed by its host planet’s tidal stresses, resulting in a debris ring much like that of Saturn.

While this is not expected to happen for at least 20-40 million years, it will mark the first time a non-gas planet in our solar system has acquired a ring.

The study’s authors claim 28km-wide moon Phobos, which orbits just 6,000km above the Martian surface, is slowly advancing towards the planet by a couple of centimetres per year.

Evidence of tidal stresses have already appeared on the moon, in the form of long, shallow grooves in its surface: gravitational “stretch marks”.

"Those grooves indicate the break up might be happening sooner than we expected," the study's lead author Dr Benjamin Black said.

Phobos’ eventual collapse, once begun, is expected to be completed in just five orbits.

Many of the moon’s larger chunks, unable to withstand gravity, will crash into the Red Planet’s surface, forming craters.

The ring itself is not expected to last longer than 100 million years, as it too succumbs to tidal stresses.