Venus may have swallowed its own moon, study suggests

New research published in The Astrophysical Journal suggests that Venus may have once possessed a moon that was eventually pulled into the planet by its own gravity. Unlike Earth, which rotates every 24 hours and causes its moon to drift away, Venus rotates extremely slowly, taking approximately 243 Earth days to complete a single rotation.

Astrophysicist Stephen Kane of the University of California, Riverside, used computer models to simulate various scenarios involving hypothetical moons of different masses. The simulations indicated that due to Venus' slow rotation and unique gravitational interactions, a moon would likely lose energy and spiral inward toward the planet rather than moving away. While the study does not confirm that a moon once existed, it provides a plausible mechanism for why Venus currently lacks a satellite.