It’s the unusual story of a poster in a child’s room, his dad’s boundless curiosity and a moon that didn’t exist… A story of perseverance, but also an adventure astonishing astronomical around a rather particular object: a quasi-moon of Venus. Which will now be called Zoozve.
The history of Zoozve is closely linked to that of Latif Nasser, American-Canadian, doctor in history of science and producer of several science shows. In January 2023, he goes to put his two-year-old son to bed and once again walks past the large poster of the Solar System hanging in his room. But taking a distracted look, he notices on the illustration, a moon drawn next to Venus, “Zoozve”. Without being an astrophysicist, Latif knows that a priori, Venus has no moon. But once his son is asleep, he still checks online. Nothing. And nothing on the name Zoozve either, except results in Czech. With his training and his profession, Latif decides not to give up. He contacted a friend who worked for NASA for a decade, without success. But the story intrigues him, how did this name end up on a children’s poster?
Zoozve everything, right away
Change of track, this time Latif Nasser contacts the poster’s illustrator, Alex Foster. The only problem is that his work for the poster is not new, and he claims that he found this name on a list available online, which he did not keep. Should we give up? Latif’s friend then calls him back with a new idea, it wasn’t Zoozve, but 2002-VE! A small reading and transmission error on the part of the illustrator, who quickly confirms. However, the question remains, is 2002-VE a moon of Venus?
Almost. Discovered in 2002, it is an asteroid approximately 300 meters in diameter, about which little is known. Latif Nasser went to Brian Skiff of the Lowell Observatory, who detected it for the very first time. But the latter discovered thousands in a research program in the 90s and 2000s, and from memory, 2002-VE68 (its official name) reminded him of nothing. Two other astronomers, one in Finland and the other in Canada, continued the measurements and confirmed in a scientific article published in July 2004 that 2002-VE was a quasi-satellite. In fact, it was even the very first quasi-satellite ever observed.
We can’t stop Zoozve
It is therefore not 100% a moon of Venus, but an asteroid which, for a more or less long period, dances near Venus, attracted by it while remaining in orbit around the Sun. Scientific magic of gravitational attractions and three-body problems, this balance is actually unstable in the long term. 2002-VE has been in near-orbit of Venus for about 7,000 years, but it was likely a disruption in Earth’s orbit that sent it into the corner, while within a few millennia both celestial bodies will cease their common dance. And if before the 2000s, we had not yet observed a similar asteroid, orbital mechanics is a much more complex and profound field than we imagine, with orbits, quasi-orbits, flybys, accelerations, braking, spheres of influence and Lagrange points… In short, a whole world of attraction where on a human scale everything seems frozen, but where everything is in motion.
Amazed by this (re)discovery, Latif Nasser chose to share it with as many people as possible. First on social networks, then by congratulating the illustrator of the image and even asking the IAU (International Astronomical Union), which decides on space nomenclatures, if 2002-VE68 could be officially named Zoozve. A name which is for once neither mythological nor related to something on Earth, has no correct or incorrect pronunciation, just a name on a poster intended to make young and old dream of our sky.
On February 5, the IAU accepted. The near-moon of Venus, 2002-VE68 is now called Zoozve. Nice story, right?
Source : Space.com
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