Deimos vs Sun (How Are They Different?)

The main differences between the Sun and Deimos is that the Sun is the central entity in our solar system that all objects in its local region orbit, has a diameter of 1.39 million km and is the brightest entity in our solar system that produces energy for life to exist via nuclear fusion whilst Deimos is far smaller with a diameter of 12.4km and is one of two moons that orbit Mars.

There are numerous other differences between the Sun and Deimos so, continue reading for a more in-depth look at each celestial object along with their similarities and differences below.

What Is The Moon Deimos?

Deimos is the smaller and outermost of the two moons of Mars, named after the Greek God of dread and terror (the brother of Phobos). This satellite was also discovered by American astronomer Asaph Hall just five days before Phobos (12th August 1877).

Scientists like Johannes Kepler had put forward theories for the existence of these moons many years before they were discovered. Their calculations were based on the fact that the planets on either side (Earth and Jupiter) possessed one and four moons, respectively.

Still, none were discovered until the 19th century. One of the main reasons for this is that the tiny size of Phobos and Deimos, combined with an exceptionally close orbit to their planet, means that the glare of Mars often obscures our view of them.

Phobos measures just 15 x 12 x 11 km and completes an orbit of Mars once every 30 hours.

This tiny moon is also a heavily cratered landscape shaped by the impact of asteroid collisions over time. However, the material thrown up from these impacts doesn’t appear to have landed back on the moon’s surface as it usually would. This could be because the lack of gravity on Phobos allowed the ejected material into space.

The surface gravity on Deimos is just 0.003 m/s^2 (compared to 9.807 m/s^2 on Earth), which means the average gravitational pull of Deimos is only 0.003 m/s. With only 1/2500th of Earth’s gravity, you would need a tether to walk on this rocky moon, or every step would put you at risk of achieving escape velocity and launching yourself into space.

The composition of Deimos is similar to Phobos, suggesting that it might also be a captured asteroid. Its surface is very dark gray and has an albedo of around 0.07, meaning it reflects just 7% light (about half of the light Earth’s moon can reflect).

What Is The Sun?

The moon is the gray celestial being that orbits our Earth. It is also tidally locked to Earth meaning that we only see one side of it at any time in our sky.

It takes the moon roughly 27 days to complete an orbit around Earth, which it does in an elliptical pattern. The Moon’s axial tilt is very straight at 1.5 degrees. As a result of the tidally locked status along with the effects that Earth has on its general rotational patterns, it takes the Moon roughly 29.5 days to complete a day.

In regards to its temperature, it fluctuates where it can be really hot at 127 degrees Celsius when the Sun is shining on it and to -173 degrees in areas where the Sun does not strike it. It’s core on the other hand is far hotter ranging between 1,327 to 1,427 degrees Celsius.

This is as a result of the lunar entity’s extremely thin to practically non-existent atmosphere, which not only results in these massive temperature shifts but, is also the reason why it has over 100,000 craters on its surface.

Speaking of the Moon’s surface, the entity is mostly made of rocks, iron, magnesium just like most of the other moons and terrestrial based planets in our solar system.

It is among the bigger moons in our solar system with a diameter of 3,474.8km and a mass of 7.35 × 10^22 kg, which actually places it fifth amongst all moons in our solar system and would also make it bigger than the dwarf planet Pluto.

Despite all the advancements in technology, the last time a manned mission was made to the Moon was on the Apollo 17 way back in December 1972 and no further missions have been done since, possibly as result of the political agendas behind the numerous countries vying for opportunities that we don’t know of.

Similarities Between Deimos And The Sun

Although the Sun and Deimos don’t have too many similarities, there still are a few features they do share, which in this case includes the following:

• Both have a hotter central core.
• Both are part of the same solar system.

Differences Between Deimos And The Sun

As for the differences between the two, they include the below:

• Deimos is far smaller than the Sun with a diameter of 12.4km whilst the Sun has a diameter of 1.39 million km.
• The Sun has more mass than Deimos too where it is 1.989 × 10^30 kg or 1 solar mass whilst Deimos’ is 1.4762 × 10^15 kg.
• The Sun has a magnetosphere while Deimos does not.
• Deimos is a terrestrial entity whilst the Sun is mostly gas based.
• The Sun is the hottest entity in our solar system where it has a temperature of 6,000 degrees Celsius whilst Deimos’ temperature fluctuates between -4 to -112 degrees.
• In regards to the core temperature, the Sun’s is 15 million degrees whilst Deimos has no core.
• Deimos orbits Mars in an elliptical pattern whilst the Sun does not orbit any other object.
• Deimos is tidally locked to Mars whilst the Sun is not tidally locked to anything.
• Deimos has no objects orbiting it whilst the Sun has the whole solar system orbiting it.
• The Sun goes through nuclear fusion whilst Deimos does not.
• When the Sun dies it will become a white dwarf whereas Deimos may break apart but not become a different altogether.
• Deimos is not spherical while the Sun is a spherical shape.

Summary

The Sun and Deimos are completely different entities. One is a giant ball of flames found in the center of the solar system whilst the other is a rocky natural satellite that orbits Mars.

The differences in size, temperature, effect on other entities and even composition show dissimilar they are to each other and is the reason why they fall under completely different brackets within the cosmos.