Study suggests Venus’s moon may have crashed into planet

NEW DELHI: (Sep 17) Venus’s moon may have crashed into it because of the planet’s gravity and slow spin rate, which is probably why Earth’s twin does not have a moon, according to new research.

Various theories have long suggested that Venus may once have had a moon that was destroyed by a massive impact, while others argue that the planet never underwent a collision to form a moon in the first place.

Stephen Kane, an astrophysicist at University of California-Riverside and lead author of the research published in the The Astrophysical Journal, said that the study shows Venus “didn’t require a catastrophe to arrive at what we can see today”.