Key Points
Because, rotating out there, in sync with our various planetary neighbours, are still-mysterious bodies called quasi-moons that arent exactly satellites, but come so close to being satellites that they cant be said to not be satellites either..
There is a quasi-moon called 2002 VE68 that has been orbiting Venus, for instance, for about 7,000 years..
It was in a bit of a dance with Venus, taking the same amount of time to travel around the sun as that planet, in a sort of distant orbit circling alongside, much farther than a moon would, but still influenced by the planet..
They are not considered real moons partly because of the weak gravitational link with their planet, partly because they tend to escape that link and hurtle out of orbit eventually..
We think that most quasi-moons originate from the inner part of the main belt of asteroids between Mars and Jupiter, and probably get thrown into planet-crossing orbits following collisions among those bodies, says Skiff. ..
