A renegade moon may have flipped Venus’s spin


Venus spins in the opposite direction to all of the other planets in the solar system

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Venus rotates in the opposite direction to the other planets in the solar system, and astronomers aren’t sure why – but it may have been caused by the drag of an ancient moon in a backwards orbit.

The early solar system was a chaotic place, with rocks hurtling around at extraordinary speeds. Valeri Makarov at the United States Naval Observatory in Washington DC and Alexey Goldin at Teza Technologies in Chicago performed a series…



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