The Naked Scientists
Toggle navigation
Login
Register
Podcasts
The Naked Scientists
eLife
Naked Genetics
Naked Astronomy
In short
Naked Neuroscience
Ask! The Naked Scientists
Question of the Week
Archive
Video
SUBSCRIBE to our Podcasts
Articles
Science News
Features
Interviews
Answers to Science Questions
Get Naked
Donate
Do an Experiment
Science Forum
Ask a Question
About
Meet the team
Our Sponsors
Site Map
Contact us
User menu
Login
Register
Search
Home
Help
Search
Tags
Recent Topics
Login
Register
Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences
Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology
Why does Venus rotate differently to other planets?
« previous
next »
Print
Pages: [
1
]
Go Down
Why does Venus rotate differently to other planets?
3 Replies
4503 Views
4 Tags
0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.
IzzieC
(OP)
Full Member
51
Activity:
0%
Naked Science Forum Newbie
Why does Venus rotate differently to other planets?
«
on:
21/11/2017 09:54:29 »
Connie wants to know...
Why is it that Venus is the only planet in our solar system that rotates in a clockwise rotation while the others rotate counter-clockwise?
Can you help?
Logged
Janus
Hero Member
951
Activity:
0%
Thanked: 268 times
Re: Why does Venus rotate differently to other planets?
«
Reply #1 on:
21/11/2017 16:11:37 »
Venus is not the only planet that rotates retrograde, Uranus does also. Uranus is "tipped over on its side" by better than 90 degrees, so technically it rotates counter-clockwise. Something in the past tilted its axis by a large amount.
One of the present theories for Venus assumes that something similar happened to it. It originally rotated like the other planets, but various imbalanced effects caused it to "flip over". Another theory is that it slowed down due to tidal forces caused by the Sun, and would have become tidally locked if it hadn't been for tidal influences from the other planets, which caused a slight retrograde rotation to be a more stable outcome.
Logged
evan_au
Global Moderator
Naked Science Forum GOD!
11033
Activity:
8%
Thanked: 1486 times
Re: Why does Venus rotate differently to other planets?
«
Reply #2 on:
21/11/2017 20:08:30 »
We know that the Solar System had some major bombardment in its past (just look at the Moon through a telescope).
- In fact, it is thought that just such an event
formed
the Moon
A big object crashing into a planet off-center could change its axis of rotation significantly.
See:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Heavy_Bombardment
Logged
Bigjoemonger
Jr. Member
21
Activity:
0%
Thanked: 5 times
It's ok, I'm a health physicist
Re: Why does Venus rotate differently to other planets?
«
Reply #3 on:
24/11/2017 06:05:55 »
To answer your question we don't actually know.
Theres lots of theories as to why but whatever caused it, happened billions of years ago so all we can do is speculate.
Logged
Ask me about radiation.
Print
Pages: [
1
]
Go Up
« previous
next »
Tags:
venus
/
planet
/
rotation
/
orbit
There was an error while thanking
Thanking...