New simulations suggest Venus may have consumed its own moon

Across billions of years, Venus may have carried and then consumed a moon — a quiet cosmic tragedy encoded in the planet's unusually slow rotation. New astrophysics simulations suggest that tidal forces, the same patient mechanism that governs Earth's ocean tides, gradually drew a hypothetical Venusian satellite inward until it crossed the Roche limit and was torn apart. In destroying its own moon, Venus may have set itself on the path toward becoming the hostile, lead-melting world we observe today — a reminder that even planetary identities are shaped by what is lost, not only what endures.