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Venus Ate Its Moon: New Study Explains Earth's Twin's Missing Satellite
Key Takeaways
- New UC Riverside research published in The Astrophysical Journal suggests Venus swallowed its moon instead of losing it to a catastrophic impact.
- Earlier explanations proposed that Venus' moon was obliterated by a massive collision, or that Venus never formed a moon at all; the new study says neither fits.
- Earth's moon moves away about four centimeters (1.6 inches) per year because Earth's fast 24-hour rotation transfers energy to it.
- Venus takes 243 Earth days to rotate once and spins the opposite way, so a moon would spiral inward toward the planet.
DE
DT Editorial Team··via phys.org
 *The full trail of galaxies, with an inset image of DF9 taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: Keim et al. (2026)/DECaLS/HST* (via universetoday.com)](https://www.universetoday.com/article_images/YN_DF9-drak-galaxy_20260630_213243.jpg)
