Why do Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune spin counterclockwise?
Dear Nancy,
Uranus and Venus were likely hit by a very large planetoid early in the history of the solar system, which disturbed their original rotation. However, clockwise and anti-clockwise rotation doesn't make sense for astronomical objects. Its better to use the terms prograde and retrograde....
Please also visit this internet page for more details:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retrograde_and_prograde_motion
All the best
Thomas
Thomas Jüstel ,
Please accept my belated thanks for your answer to my Research Gate discussion thread question "Why do Venus and Uranus rotate on their axes [and] or spin in a clockwise direction?" Currently, I have just completed and returned galley proofs for my article on "Darwinian Ideas and Marxian Idealism in Austen, Twain, Yeats, Camus, and Ishiguro" in the Routledge Companion to Literature and Class and also for my Elsevier chapter on "Artificial Intelligence for Heavy Vehicle Technology: Subtextual AI/HVT Imagery, Cultural Ethos, and Legal/Ethical/Moral Standards in The Long, Long Trailer. Currently, I am compiling a list of galley proof corrections for my chapter on "Toward a Quantum Theory of Cognitive Affect from Poe to Robotic Helpers: Newton, Arousal, and Covalent Bonding, which is scheduled for publication in Artificial Intelligence and Computing Logic: Cognitive Technology for Business Analytics, forthcoming in 2022.
In case you may be interested, I would also like to let you know that, only hours ago, a second answer arrived at this Research Gate discussion thread, contributed by a new scientific researcher whose principal scientific research linguistic areas are in German and Russian, I believe, with English as a third area. It would be of interest to me if you might be in agreement with the perspective he has presented on this RG discussion thread as an expert in the field.
Thank you very much!
With my best regards,
Nancy Ann Watanabe, Ph.D.,
Literature, Film, and Science
Gerges Francis Tawdrous
,Thank you very much for contributing your answers to this ResearchGate discussion thread question. I would also like to let you know that I am trying to contact Professor Dr. Thomas Jüstel because of my interest in knowing if he shares your perspective on this question.
Best wishes,
Dr. Nancy Ann Watanabe
Research Professor of
Literature, Film, and Science
Dear Gerges,
Your analysis of correlations between motions of the planets in the solar system is very convincing. However, I am just a chemist/biologist with some (amateur) interest in astronomy. My answer to Nancy was meant to clarify some astronomical expressions, while the cause for the retrograde rotation of Venus and Uranus could be an impact but also gravitational effects over a long time.
However, my recommendation is to discuss your correlations and causes of the peculiar situation of Venus and Uranus with a professional astronomer, such as Prof. Dr. Harlad Lesch from Munich University:
https://www.usm.uni-muenchen.de/people/lesch/lesch.html
All the best,
Thomas