GoKawiilUC Riverside study: Venus may have absorbed its own moon via slow rotation
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside modeled how Venus' extremely slow rotation—243 Earth days per spin—combined with its gravity could have gradually dragged a hypothetical moon inward until it broke apart and was absorbed by the planet. Lead author Steven Kane says this process wouldn't have required a catastrophic collision, contradicting an earlier theory that Venus' moon was destroyed by an impact with another body. The team built a computer simulation of gravitational interactions to test this mechanism.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
The finding could reshape understanding of why Venus, despite being similar in size and mass to Earth, lacks a moon while Earth's own moon drifts away rather than falling inward. This suggests that a planet's rotation speed may be a decisive factor in whether it can retain a satellite over long timescales, which could inform models of moon formation and loss around other rocky exoplanets.
- UC Riverside researchers propose Venus's moon was slowly absorbed rather than destroyed in a collision
- Venus's unusually slow 243-day rotation, paired with its gravity, would have pulled a moon inward instead of pushing it away
- Earth's fast rotation causes its moon to drift outward, roughly 1.5 inches per year, unlike what would happen at Venus
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Published there as: “Venus May Have Devoured Its Moon”
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