Venus May Have Devoured Its Moon, Scientists Find

Venus, often dubbed Earth's "evil twin," is a planet with a hellish surface, despite sharing similarities with our home world. New research published in The Astrophysical Journal suggests that Venus may have had a moon that was ultimately devoured by the planet itself. Scientists previously speculated that Venus once had a moon, but the current lack of moons, with the exception of several trojan asteroids, led others to believe that Venus never experienced the catastrophic impact necessary to form a natural satellite.

However, a team of astrophysicists led by Stephen Kane from the University of California, Riverside, have used computer simulations to show that Venus' slow rotation and sluggish spin would cause any potential moon to crash into the planet's surface in an "apocalyptic demise." This finding could impact the search for habitable worlds beyond our solar system, as moons are often considered a sign of habitability.

Kane emphasized that the study reveals a "disturbing scenario" for many potentially habitable planets, as moons that do not rotate fast enough would inevitably collide with their host planets. While the paper does not definitively prove that Venus had a moon, it does suggest that if one did exist, it was likely consumed by the planet.

The geological record on Venus is challenging to investigate, as the majority of its surface dates back to around a billion years ago, indicating that a major resurfacing event may have erased any evidence of a past moon.