Does Venus Have a Moon?
September 2024 :
We all know that the outer planets have lots of satellites, but our two inner ones have none. Or do they?
In 1672, astronomer Giovanni Cassini believed he saw one around Venus, which he called Neith. Certain astronomers believed they also viewed it, but not William Herschel, and it was never observed during the Venus transits of 1761 and 1769.
It is believed what they all saw was a star that seemed to be in the planet’s field of view.
But now, there seems to be talk of a “moon” again. In 2002, Brian Skiff, an astronomer at the Lowell Observatory, discovered what he called a quasi-moon around Venus. What it appears to be is an asteroid that seems to orbit Venus, but isn’t bound to it gravitationally; instead, it has a complex orbit that goes around Venus and our Sun. This makes its motion unstable, so it will eventually be ejected from this orbit.
This asteroid does cross our own orbit, so there is a possibility that, as it is close to 750 feet across, it could be considered a potential hazard to us, although not exactly one to slam into us.
This object originally was listed as 2002VE68, but was shortened to 2002VE; however, artist Alex Foster, when creating a map of it, misread it as ZOOZVE, which, on February 5, 2024, the IAU, the official astronomical naming organization, designated this is how our new solar system member would be called.
So, yes, Venus, like its neighbor Mercury, is still moonless. At least for now. . .
