r/SGU • u/Dr_DBW • 10d ago

1106 Venus with no moon

Surprised the discussion didn't also mention that Venus is so close to the Sun that it's local gravitational well (Hills radius) is so small that it makes it hard to hold onto a moon. The Sun simply dominates, so a body ends up orbiting the Sun, not the planet.

I have a feeling that I initially heard about that explanation for Mercury and Venus not having moons on an earlier episode?

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u/UnTraditional_Speed 9d ago

Episode 1002 right at the beginning

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u/JitteryJet 7d ago

There is no reason why Venus should have ever had a moon. Earth having a large moon is unusual. Earth is almost a double-planet. Mars doesn't really have moons either, Phobos and Deimos look more like asteroids.