Venus has a quasi-moon and it's just been named 'Zoozve' for a sweet reason

[Rick]

Venus has a quasi-moon and it's just been named 'Zoozve' for a sweet reason

The Small Bodies Nomenclature Working Group (WGSBN) – the folks responsible for assigning names to minor planets and comets – last week published a bulletin [PDF] in which it gave 29 small celestial bodies their very own names.

One of the newly named bodies has been given the moniker "Zoozve" and it is remarkable – for several reasons.

One is that it's the first identified quasi-satellite of a major planet.

Zoozve is an asteroid that, as described by its discoverers in a 2005 paper, has an orbit that "takes it quite far afield from Venus – it dives in towards the Sun, passing within the orbit of Mercury, and travelling outwards just beyond the orbit of the Earth at its furthest from the Sun." That path traces a shape that resembles a butterfly shape that comes about because the asteroid and Venus are travelling around the Sun nearly in lock-step.

More: https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/13/venusian_quasi_moon_named_zoozve/

...and why?

Read this Xwitter thread: https://twitter.com/latifnasser/status/1750952860131729544