There should be some systematic reason to why moons are so rare in the inner solar system. Do comets have so high speed when they pass through here that they are unlikely to be captured? By the low mass inner planets anyway. Or is it about the water line in the asteroid belt? Anywhoo, I remember reading an Isaac Asimov essay as a kid that posited that we might be much farther along in science had Venus had a moon that was quite visible from Earth.
We might have left the earth-centric thinking much more quickly. Asimov wrote another, similar, essay speculating what things might be like if the Sun had a smaller binary companion orbiting where Uranus is now. He suggested the star could have an Earth-sized planet of its own which would be visible to the naked eye here. We on Earth have just one moon, but some planets have dozens of them. Up first are Mercury and Venus. Neither of them has a moon. Any moon would most likely crash into Mercury or maybe go into orbit around the Sun and eventually get pulled into it.
Mars has two moons. Their names are Phobos and Deimos. Next are the giant outer planets. They have lots of moons. Jupiter, for instance, has 79 known moons! There could be other explanations as well, however, which is part of why astronomers are so interested in revisiting this world. Figuring out the answer could teach us more about the solar system's formation. Explore further.
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Share Twit Share Email. April 23, A radar view of Venus taken by the Magellan spacecraft, with some gaps filled in by the Pioneer Venus orbiter. Credit: Juan Gonzalez-Alicea. Venus as photographed by the Pioneer spacecraft in Some exoplanets may suffer the same fate as this scorched world.
Provided by Universe Today. Citation : How many moons does Venus have? This document is subject to copyright.
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