It’s long been established that Venus, like Mercury, does not have a moon. But does that mean the celestial body has always been entirely alone? Not quite. In 2002, a quasi-satellite was discovered by Brian A. Skiff at Lowell Observatory. Recently named Zoozve because the original designation of 2002 VE68 was misread by artist Alex Foster when he was designing a space poster, it was found to be an asteroid with an orbit dictated by Venus’ gravitational pull. It’s termed quasi because it primarily heads towards and around the Sun, passing within the orbit of Mercury as it travels. But what if Venus once had a proper, full-blown moon? What would it have been like, and what effect could it have had on the hottest planet in our Solar System?
According to Valeri Makarov at the US Naval Observatory in Washington DC and Alexey Goldin at Teza Technologies in Chicago, there’s every chance that Venus had an ancient moon that has long since been destroyed. The pair have gone as far as giving the hypothetical body a name – Neith – and they reckon it may well have played a big part in the current
