Venus Has a Moon? It was thought to be alone, but Venus is being stalked by a "quasi-satellite."

Discovery News ^ | Friday, December 10, 2010 | Mike Simonsen

[SunkenCiv]

Astronomers have been busy trying to determine the spin period and composition of Venus' moon. On Dec. 8, 2010, results of the study were announced by JPL/Caltech scientists, led by Michael Hicks... It has the rather unfortunate name of 2002 VE68. That's because it was discovered on Nov. 11, 2002 by LONEOS, the Lowell Observatory Near Earth Object Search. 2002 VE68 is an Earth orbit-crossing asteroid that has been designated a Potential Hazardous Asteroid by the Minor Planet Center... 2002 VE68 used to be a run of the mill, potential impact threat Near Earth Object (NEO). But approximately 7,000 years ago it had a close encounter with Earth that kicked it into a new orbit. It now occupies a place in orbit around the sun where at its closest it wanders inside the orbit of Mercury and at its furthest it reaches just outside the orbit of the Earth. It is now in a 1:1 orbital resonance with Venus... In the case of Venus and 2002 VE68, they both take the same time to orbit the sun once. They are in a 1:1 orbital resonance. So by definition, 2002 VE68 is considered a quasi-satellite of Venus.

[muawiyah]

http://www.electricscotland.com/webclans/cairney/51.htm ~ ignore the Pict part ~ it’s irrelevant. The analyst is trying to call the seagoing Celts who traveled from the Danube to the Mediterranean to Spain by the term Cluthne. And, maybe they were, and maybe they weren’t. The Galatian records in Spain don’t accord them that name, but they do identify the Sons of Ir (the Milesians) as being the first invaders of Ireland and Britain in roughly 700 BC.

[SunkenCiv]

Just a list info update.

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