EARTHSKY - People are fascinated by the idea of a planet orbiting more than one star, like Tatooine in “Star Wars” or Trisolaris in “The Three-Body Problem.” On September 29, 2026, researchers at the University of California, Riverside, said they have modeled a nearby binary star system and found that it could potentially support an...
PEOPLE - Venus may be moonless today, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it always was. A new study suggests that if Venus once had a moon, the planet’s unusually slow rotation could have eventually pulled the celestial body back toward its surface, potentially ending with a massive collision. After the collision, the fragments of the...
MASHABLE - Venus' sluggish spin may be the key to why it doesn't have a moon — anymore, at least, new research says. The study, led by University of California, Riverside astrophysicist Stephen Kane, appears in The Astrophysical Journal. Kane's team built computer simulations of how gravity ties a planet to a moon in space...
BBC - Scientists have come up with a surprising new theory about one of our neighbouring planets - and it involves a missing moon. They think Venus may once have had one, but that it slowly moved closer to the planet, before eventually crashing into it. The idea could help explain why Venus doesn't have...
REUTERS - A California-based astrophysicist presented a new theory on Monday to explain why Venus, the planet most like Earth in size, mass and structure, lacks its own moon. Call it a case of celestial cannibalism. The extremely slow speed at which Venus rotates on its axis would have doomed any natural satellite that may...
LIVE SCIENCE - Given that it's the closest planet to the sun, Mercury seems like it should be the hottest planet in our solar system. However, at a blistering 900 degrees Fahrenheit (480 degrees Celsius), Venus tops Mercury's 800 F (430 C) highest surface temperature, despite being an average of 31 million miles (50 million...
ZME SCIENCE - Venus has no moon today. But it may not always have been alone. A new study suggests that if a giant impact gave early Venus a substantial moon, tidal forces could eventually have reversed the satellite’s path and dragged it back toward the planet. Venus would then have torn the moon apart...
ZME SCIENCE - Discovering Venus-like conditions beyond our Solar System could reveal why some rocky worlds remain havens for life while others become scorching greenhouse infernos. Before solving that mystery, however, astronomers must determine how quickly those distant planets are truly spinning. Slower rotations can cause hellish conditions astronomers see on Venus, but new research...
UNIVERSE TODAY - Mars holds a special place in the Solar System. It represents marginal habitability. This means it transitioned from warm and wet and potentially hospitable, to cold and dry and inhospitable. What can its transition tell us about exoplanet habitability? New research to be published in the Planetary Science Journal examines the question...
NEW SCIENTIST - Compared with Earth, Mars is tiny, yet it seems to have an outsized effect on our planet’s climate cycles. Similar small planets could affect the climates of worlds beyond our solar system, which we must begin to take into account when evaluating their potential habitability. Stephen Kane at the University of California...