Mars may have had its own ring billions of years ago according to a recent research conducted at the Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana funded by NASA. The study also denotes that the red planet's moon will eventually be rings again in the future as published in the Monday edition of Nature Geoscience.

The study on Mars ring and moon was headed by David Minton, and assistant professor at the Purdue University and Andrew Hesselbrock, a Department of Physics and Astronomy Ph.D. Student. Their theory suggests that the process of transformation probably took place three to seven times in the planet's history.

According to a model they created, Mars ring was a result of an asteroid or a big celestial body that slammed the planet 4.3 billion years ago. The slam produced debris from the planet that was pushed into space which eventually formed a planetary ring.

"That large impact would have blasted enough material off the surface of Mars to form a ring," said Andrew Hesslbrock, according to NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Mars ring composed of debris clumps together resulting in the formation of moons.

The moons turning to Mars ring takes place because of the planet's gravitational pull bringing objects closer. Over time, the celestial body gets nearer to the Roche limit, the point where the red planet's tidal force breaks the gravity holding together a celestial body.

Researchers are closely watching over Deimos and Phobos, the planet's moons as the latter is getting nearer Roche limit. When Phobos breaks apart into a Mars ring for 70 million years, it is expected to be in smaller form after the process, as every time moon turns apart and turns into a ring, it will be five times smaller than its precedent.

The study suggests that having the appearance of a mundane asteroid class, the two moons could have been asteroids that got caught in the planet's gravitational field. Both have the potentials of becoming a Mars ring in the future, as ARS Technica reported. Watch this video for more of the story.

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