The Sesquinary Catastrophe on Deimos can reconcile its excited past with its dynamically cool present

TL;DR

This paper proposes that a collisional cascade called the sesquinary catastrophe prevents Deimos from having a more excited orbit, explaining its current low eccentricity and inclination through simulations and a natural barrier mechanism.

Contribution

It introduces the sesquinary catastrophe as a natural barrier mechanism that explains Deimos' current orbit and surface properties, integrating collisional dynamics with orbital evolution.

Findings

Deimos would break apart if its orbital excitation exceeds q ≈ 8.

Simulations show breakup occurs within 10^3-10^4 years for high excitation.

Deimos' smooth surface is consistent with re-accretion from a debris disk after breakup.

Abstract

The origins of the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos are highly debated, and hypotheses include formation from an impact-generated circum-Martian disk or from capture of asteroids. With the impact scenario, Deimos (or its precursors) were formed or were pushed out beyond the synchronous orbit of Mars. Moons interior to the synchronous orbit, including Phobos (or its precursors), would tidally evolve and resonances between these moons could potentially excite Deimos' orbit. This contradicts Deimos' present-day orbit of low eccentricity ($0.00027$) and moderate inclination ($1.8^\circ$ to the Laplace plane). Tidal dissipation within Deimos is too inefficient for eccentricity damping, and without alternative mechanisms, Deimos' present-day orbit places strong constraints on the evolution of any inner moons. We propose that a runaway collisional cascade called the "sesquinary catastrophe'' acts as a natural barrier that prevents Deimos from having a more excited orbit. Using N-body simulations with collisional fragmentation, we show that if Deimos was more excited, it would undergo a sesquinary catastrophe and break apart into a Roche-exterior debris disk. Using a measure of sesquinary orbital excitation called $q$, our simulations and previous works suggest that breakup occurs for $q \gtrsim 8$ on timescales of $\sim 10^{3-4}$ years. If Deimos was destroyed in a sesquinary catastrophe and re-accreted from a (likely collisionally) damped debris disk, it should be a porous sand-pile moon, consistent with its smooth surface. The sesquinary catastrophe can be applied to other Deimos-like planetary moons at $q \gtrsim 8$.