Eventually, Nerio was lost somehow. It may have been eradicated by a collision, leaving behind Phobos and Deimos, Mars’ current moons. Or, a gravitational interaction with another celestial body pushed it out of the solar system.
These types of events were common in the early solar system. Astronomers believe Earth’s moon came from a collision with a protoplanet the size of Mars. Scattered bodies among the outer planets then shifted their initial orbits into their current positions.
Nerio would have continued to deform Mars’ landscape as the planet cooled. After the moon disappeared, further geological processes did the rest of the work.
Efroimsky noted that the Nerio explanation was just a theory, as there is no solid evidence to prove its former existence.
If Nerio did exist and was destroyed, it should have left a series of craters along the belt that aligned with its orbit.
However, no craters of this kind exist, but it is possible that other collisions and geologic activity eliminated all traces of the craters.
It is also not a guarantee that the heating and cooling processes in Mars’ interior would’ve naturally caused distortions in the planet’s shape. Researchers are now working on ways to look for evidence of the lost moon.
The paper can be found as a preprint on the site arXiv.
