Neith was a claimed natural satellite of the planet Venus. It was claimed to be seen by Giovanni Cassini in 1672, then several more astronomers have claimed they have seen it. The last time it would ever be seen was in 1768, and so on so forth, Neith would be ruled out completely as a non-existent moon of Venus.[1]
Proposed Discovery[]
Neith was apparently spotted by Giovanni Cassini around 1672, but didn't take great note to it until 1686. When he spotted it again, he made a formal announcement of the possible discovery of a possible moon of Venus. However, he wasn't the first person to have noticed Neith's possible existence, as the earliest known sighting of Neith was in 1645 by Francesco Fontana. Later on, many more astronomers had begun sighting Neith again for a large period of time until 1768, where Neith would be seen one last time until it was never seen again.
Observations and Existence[]
Many more astronomers attempted to look for Neith, including William Herschel in 1768. According to Giovanni Cassini, Neith was one-fourth of Venus' diameter, which would be approximately 3,026 km (1,880.27 mi). In 1761, Joseph Lagrange proposed that Neith's orbital plane was perpendicular to the ecliptic, but on the same year, Jean le Rond d'Alembert wrote to Voltaire that Neith had "declined to follow his Mistress during her passage over the Sun", and even questioned whether or not if Venus truly had a Moon or not.[2] Today By around 1766, the Vienna Observatory's director speculated that the observations of Neith was an optical illusion, and said that the bright appearance of Venus reflected into the telescope, which creates a Smaller Secondary Image. in 1777, J.H. Lambert estimated the orbital period of Neith, being around 11 days and 3 hours.
In 1884, Jean-Charles Houzeau suggested that Neith wasn't actually a moon, but rather a planet that orbited Sol every 283 days. Such a planet would be in conjunction with Venus every 1080 Days, which could fit the recorded observations. Houzeau was also the first person to name Neith, naming it after the early ancient Egyptian deity also known as Neith.
However, Neith's existence would soon come to an end. By around 1887, a paper was published by the Belgian Academy of Sciences that reported every sighting of Neith, and ultimately determined that most of the sightings could be explained by stars that had been in the vicinity of Venus. Those Stars were Chi Orionis, M Tauri, 71 Orionis, Nu Geminorum and Theta Librae.
Trivia[]
Francesco Fontana's art work of Venus' claimed moon seen on the image.
- Aside from the hypothetical moon of Neith, there is also an asteroid that goes by the name of "1122 Neith". This is, however, located within the central region of the Asteroid Belt and not within the inner solar system. It was discovered in the 17th of September, 1928. Over 160 years after the last sighting of Neith.
- There is also an impact Crater on Ganymede that also goes by the name of "Neith".
- Although while Neith doesn't actually exist, the 2006 studies of models of the early Solar system led in by Alex Alemi and David Stevenson suggests that Venus' odd rotation could be the result of a collision with another celestial body, in which Venus may've likely had a moon that formed from an impact event many years ago,[3] before a secondary impact event happening 10 million years later led to Venus' rotation to be reversed and caused the proposed Venusian moon to collide with the planet due to tidal deceleration.[4] An alternative explanation suggests that the effects of the strong solar tides may've led to the destabilization of a few large natural satellites orbiting the inner rocky planets.[5]
- While this can be interpreted that Neith did exist at some point, the hypothesis makes no mentions of Neith in it, nor neither referring the proposed moon of Venus as "Neith".
References and Notes[]
- ↑ The Moon that Wasn't: The Saga of Venus' Spurious Satellite
- ↑ This was before Neith was actually named.
- ↑ Scientific American (Archive)
- ↑ Sky & Telescope
- ↑ Cornell University