"This moon is doomed."

That's the message NASA , one of Mars' two small moons. The administration said Phobos has been developing long, shallow grooves on its surface that are a sign of wear and tear from its gravitational interaction with Mars.

The grooves on Phobos could be created by tidal forces, new modeling data suggests.

(NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)

“We think that Phobos has already started to fail, and the first sign of this failure is the production of these grooves,” saidTerry Hurford of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

In our solar system, there are no moons located closer to their respective planet than Phobos is to Mars. At just 3,700 miles above Mars' surface, Phobos is more than 60 times closer to its planet than the moon is to Earth, and Phobos is being pulled about 6 feet closer to Mars every 100 years, NASA said.

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After studying model data and learning about the imminent death of Phobos, Hurford first presented the administration's findings Tuesday at the annualMeeting of the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society in National Harbor, Maryland. Previously believed to have been caused by impacts, Hurford said their studies of the moon's "stretch marks" reveal it's far worse for the future of the satellite.

If proven true, these findings would validate that suggested the grooves were stress fractures from tidal forces.

“It all ,” said Alan Harris, a co-author of the 1977 study who now works at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

It's What's Inside That Counts

Scientists previously believed Phobos was virtually solid all the way to its core. Experts didn't believe tidal forces would be able to break apart a moon that dense.

Recently, however, they've learned that the inner core of Phobos is essentially a pile of rubbleand is barely holding together. This can distort the moon's interior and force the powdery regolith outer layer to react, but eventually, the exterior will prove too weak to keep all of Mars' force from breaking Phobos apart, NASA said.

Neptune's largest moon, Triton, will also likely be broken apart in time, as it is composed much the same way and is being pulled closer and closer to its planet, NASA added.

Saturn-like Ring Possible

Could Mars someday develop a Saturn-like ring made out of debris from Phobos as it falls apart? Scientists believe it's extremely likely, based on the moon's composition.

Benjamin Black and colleague Tushar Mittal discovered Phobos is hardly denser than gravel or wet sand, and , USA Today reported. While some large chunks of the moon may fall to the surface of Mars, most of the dust will remain in orbit around the planet, forming a ring, the report added.

The entire process could take just days or weeks, Black told USA Today.

If this plays out as some scientists expect, Mars would become the only planet in our inner solar system with a ring.

How Long Until Phobos Vanishes?

Although NASA has made some fairly confident statements about the fate of Phobos, it's probably going to be around a while longer. NASA believes the moon will finally fall apart some 30 to 50 million years from now.

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The NASA Mars rover Curiosity used its Mast Camera during the mission's 120th Martian day, or sol (Dec. 7, 2012), to record this view of a rock outcrop informally named Shaler. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS