Earth's graceful 24-hour rotation rate is one of the traits that makes our planet so friendly to life, allowing most parts of Earth to stay a nice, comfortable temperature as they are bathed in sunlight during the day and darkness at night.
Each planet in the solar system has its own unique rotation rate. Tiny Mercury, sizzling closest to the Sun, takes 59 Earth days to turn around just once. Venus, the second planet, rotates once every 243 Earth days. What's more, Venus rotates backwards from the direction of its orbit around the Sun, as do Uranus and tiny Pluto. Uranus even lies down on the job, rolling around with its axis of rotation pointed nearly toward the Sun.
Why do Earth and the other planets rotate at all? It will help to understand how our solar system formed. Almost five billion years ago, our solar system had its beginnings as a vast cloud of dust and gas. The cloud began to collapse, flattening into a giant disk that rotated faster and faster, just as an ice skater spins faster as she brings her arms in. The Sun formed at the center, and the swirling gas and dust in the rest of the spinning disk clumped together to produce the planets, moons, asteroids, and comets. The reason so many objects orbit the Sun in nearly the same plane (called the ecliptic) and in the same direction is that they all formed from this same disk.
You can visit this nasa site which has audeo narration and animation on earth rotation.
http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/kids/phonedrmarc/2003_march.shtml
2006-11-13 03:50:09
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answer #1
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answered by Anonymous
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I think it's related with all the masses those surround the earth. Gravity force of Sun, planets and the moon make earth rotates on it's own rotation with regular ecliptic changes. They also fix earth rotation in it's axis.
2006-11-13 03:36:27
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answer #2
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answered by eddy 3
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opposite to some christians' beliefs, the sunlight does not revolve round god. The earth's rotation to boot as all different planets' rotation, is managed through gravitational pull. The seasons replace as a results of earth's positioning about the sunlight when you consider that we do not have a round orbit yet an elliptical one. which means for particular cases of the three hundred and sixty 5 days each and each and every hemisphere is in course of the earth than others, that is why even as the northern hemisphere has a summer season, the southern has a wintry climate. user-friendly as that, not some thing to do with a god.
2016-11-23 19:31:45
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answer #3
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answered by Anonymous
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The Earth rotates on its axis because it retains angular momentum from the stellar nebula from which the Sun and all of the planets formed. In space, there is no friction to slow it down, so it loses energy only to the Moon through tidal action.
2006-11-13 03:10:07
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answer #4
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answered by DavidK93 7
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It formed that way and has been "coasting" ever since.
2006-11-13 03:28:42
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answer #5
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answered by campbelp2002 7
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