Venusian moon
MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE
It’s well known for having no natural satellite today, but did an ancient companion have a big influence on the planet?
It’s long been established that Venus, like Mercury, does not have a moon. But does that mean the celestial body has always been entirely alone? Not quite. In 2002, a quasi-satellite was discovered by Brian A. Skiff at Lowell Observatory. Recently named Zoozve because the original designation of 2002 VE68 was misread by artist Alex Foster when he was designing a space poster, it was found to be an asteroid with an orbit dictated by Venus’ gravitational pull. It’s termed quasi because it primarily heads towards and around the Sun, passing within the orbit of Mercury as it travels. But what if Venus once had a proper, full-blown moon? What would it have been like, and what effect could it have had on the hottest planet in our Solar System?
According to Valeri Makarov at the US Naval Observatory in Washington DC and Alexey Goldin at Teza Technologies in Chicago, there’s every chance that Venus had an ancient moon that has long since been destroyed. The pair have gone as far as giving the hypothetical body a name – Neith – and they reckon it may well have played a big part in the current state of Venus, which could be an interesting explanation for one of the planet’s most mysterious phenomena.
Venus is similar to Earth in many ways. Its mass, density, volume and size are closely matched, and this has led to a belief that both planets share a common origin, having formed out of a condensing nebulosity around 4.5 billion years ago. Yet Venus is also very different. It has a scorching surface temperature of 475 degrees Celsius (887 degrees Fahrenheit), an atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide and thick clouds of sulphuric acid. Its atmospheric pressure is 90 times that of Earth’s, too.
“Venus is so close to Earth in main physical parameters, but it’s absolutely uninhabitable,” Makarov says. “Is that a catastrophic accident or a reflection of our future as a species?” To answer such questions, he has developed a keen interest in the planet over many years of research. “Venus is important for understanding the origin of life, existence of civilizations beyond the Solar system and our own destiny, perhaps,” he adds. “In the Soviet Union, Venus was very high on the priority list for space exploration,
