What Hit Venus?

[mistermack]

It must have been very very early in the planet's history, before the crust had formed (no hint of a giant crater on the modern surface).

Venus was resurfaced about 400 to 500 million years ago. I believe that some of my family worked on that contract. It was a long time ago, but not very very early. Those boys never got up early for anything.

[mistermack]

I don't think my transit of Venus jape got the credit it deserved, frankly.

It's the way you tell em.

[PsychoSerenity]

Could be the impacter was large enough to completely melt the crust but why no moon? Surely there's gonna be even more spray early in the history leading to a even larger moon than ours or multiple moons? It doesn't make sense that the thing was large enough to send the planet backwards but didn't leave enough debris in orbit to form a moon or three? Could be Jupiter stole it/them?

The no moon thing is simple. The Sun.

That's no moon. It's a space station.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Venus was knocked down by a beardy bloke in a Ford Transit.

[Clinton Huxley]

Venus was knocked down by a beardy bloke in a Ford Transit.

more like it

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Venus was knocked down by a beardy bloke in a Ford Transit.

more like it

[Horwood Beer-Master]

I believe all 4 terrestrial planets show signs of possible massive impacts in their past (perhaps not surprisingly), however these impacts had different effects on each one - presumably due to differing relative masses of the bodies involved and differing angles/relative velocities of impact (among other factors).

The effect on Mercury was to seemingly strip it of most of it's outer material, leaving it with a disproportionally large iron core.
The effect on Venus was to fuck-up it's rotation as described.
The effect on the earth was the creation of the moon.
The effect on Mars was to create the North Polar Basin.

The degree of evidence for each of these varies however, with the giant impact hypothesis for the creation of our Moon being the most supported.

[Thinking Aloud]

Speaking of Venus and Transits - there's one in a couple of weeks' time.

http://www.transitofvenus.org/

Take care of your eyes.