Mars - Satellite and ring search from Viking

Abstract

Viking Orbiter 1 imaging data were used in a search for possible satellites and rings of Mars in 1980, giving attention to a region within the Phobos orbit and + or - 350 km about the Martian equatorial plane. After picture processing, no images other than stars and Phobos itself were found to be a few brightnesses (or more) above their surrounding, as would be expected in the case of a point-spread, 'smeared' image of either satellites or rings. There is therefore no evidence of any such phenomenon in the 78 pictures studied.