Mars was a popular planet to view and literally hundreds of astronomers observed it for some time. These same astronomers even discovered moons on Uranus. Then one day Asaph Hall found that Mars had two satellites where none had been observed before.
The two Martian satellites moved at very high speeds and appeared to travel in different directions! These and other factors prompted prominent astronomers to actually suppose that the moons might be artificial!
Phobos (Fear), about 13 by 16 miles, orbits some 5,800 miles from the center of Mars every 7 hours, 39 minutes.
Diemos (Terror), 7 by 9 miles, orbits some 14,600 miles from the center of Mars every 30 hours, 17 minutes.
Soviet astronomer I.S. Schklovsky pointed out that the Martian satellite Phobos exhibits a strange acceleration irregularity which would be expected only if the satellite were a huge hollow metallic sphere. The same irregularity, however, would be impossible for a natural astronomical body.
Therefore, says Dr. Schklovsky, at least one of the moons of Mars is not a natural object, but an artificial satellite placed in orbit around the planet, possibly in 1877, or shortly before that time.
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