Venus has nearly the same mass, size, and structure as Earth, which has led astronomers to believe it should have a moon, but it doesn’t. It is technically possible that a moon never formed, but scientists have also come up with several scenarios to describe how Venus could have lost its satellite.
\n\nOne previously presented hypothesis is that Venus’ moon was destroyed by a collision with some massive celestial body. But a recent study by researchers at the University of California, Riverside, suggests a different course of events. It posits that instead of being obliterated by some catastrophic external force, the moon was slowly pulled in by Venus’ gravity and plodding rotation until it fragmented and was completely swallowed.
\n\n“Venus didn’t require a catastrophe to arrive at what we can see today,” Steven Kane, an astrophysicist and the paper’s lead author, explained in a press release. “It turns out the gravity of the planet itself combined with the rate at which it spins naturally caused the moon to collapse on top of it.”
\n\nA planet’s rotation can either push or pull on its satellites, depending on its speed. The rotation can cause variations in gravitational strength. This is why our…
Original source: https://www.wired.com/