Bizarre & wonderful · Earlier selection
Could Venus have pulled a former moon down towards it?
Computer simulations suggest that Venus’s slow rotation could cause a hypothetical moon to spiral inwards.
UC Riverside’s 14 September research announcement describes gravitational models that varied the planet’s spin and the size of possible moons. Most simulated moons eventually collided with Venus. The work does not establish that Venus ever had a moon; it explores what might have happened if one existed.
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UC Riverside ↗ (opens a new tab)Independently written account of a published research hypothesis. No university text, graphics or photographs reproduced. The illustration depicts a hypothetical scenario.
AI-assisted original summary, checked against the linked source on 19 Sept 2026, 15:48 BST. Illustration is AI generated and does not document the event.
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