http://www.physorg.com/news105637304.html
Why is the rotation of Venus so slow? Even slower than Mercury
not only is it slow, it is retrograde
If you were to look down at the plane of the solar system from its 'north pole' you would see the planets orbiting the Sun counter clockwise, and rotating on their axis counterclockwise. Except for Venus. Venus would be rotating clockwise as it orbited the Sun counterclockwise. Venus is not alone. The axis of Uranus is inclined so far towards the plane of the solar system that it almost rolls on its side as it orbits the Sun.
i think it would have something to do with the planetary formation process, either the small variations in density during formation or significant collisions in the formation process (in case of Uranus it was knocked onto is side).
If you were to look down at the plane of the solar system from its 'north pole' you would see the planets orbiting the Sun counter clockwise, and rotating on their axis counterclockwise. Except for Venus. Venus would be rotating clockwise as it orbited the Sun counterclockwise. Venus is not alone. The axis of Uranus is inclined so far towards the plane of the solar system that it almost rolls on its side as it orbits the Sun.
i think it would have something to do with the planetary formation process, either the small variations in density during formation or significant collisions in the formation process (in case of Uranus it was knocked onto is side).
Quote:
"The Earth spun around at a faster clip in the past, enough so that during the time of the dinosaurs a day was about 22 hours long."
I actually heard it spun at a much faster rate, something like only a few hours in it's very primitive stages, as it had been impacted by a large foreign object... and our moon is a piece of the early earth that is literally a chip off the old block. I saw someone else suggest this and receive negative feedback, then a week later I heard those words from a show about the moon on the National Geographic channel
So the moon is really close to a quickly spinning earth, and the tidal effects are profound... Hundred feet high tidal waves! Since the moon takes 27.3 days to complete an orbit and the earth only takes one revolution per day (duh, heh) the tidal effects acted to slow the earth down through tidal friction on the presumably rigid landmasses of early earth. This is also supposed to create the "primordial soup" from which life arose. Interesting.
"The Earth spun around at a faster clip in the past, enough so that during the time of the dinosaurs a day was about 22 hours long."
I actually heard it spun at a much faster rate, something like only a few hours in it's very primitive stages, as it had been impacted by a large foreign object... and our moon is a piece of the early earth that is literally a chip off the old block. I saw someone else suggest this and receive negative feedback, then a week later I heard those words from a show about the moon on the National Geographic channel
So the moon is really close to a quickly spinning earth, and the tidal effects are profound... Hundred feet high tidal waves! Since the moon takes 27.3 days to complete an orbit and the earth only takes one revolution per day (duh, heh) the tidal effects acted to slow the earth down through tidal friction on the presumably rigid landmasses of early earth. This is also supposed to create the "primordial soup" from which life arose. Interesting.
QUOTE
I saw someone else suggest this and receive negative feedback, then a week later I heard those words from a show about the moon on the National Geographic channel
They are also taught in just about every geology/astronomy class across the country. The negative feedback is surprising to me.
As far as I know, this is the most plausible and accepted theory.
The Earth rotates because the constituent atomic particles that elements are made from also rotate (it is also the reason everything wants to be as round as possible) . Particles that comprise atomic structure "rotate", eg; "electron-spin" (rotation) is well known to chemists and nuclear pysicists. Without "electron-spin", bonding between the elements can never occur to form compounds, "spin" maintains equilibrium, better known as "conservation of energy". I'm not a nuclear physicist, but I had a couple semesters of it in in engineering school.
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