Do all of the planets in our solar system rotate the same direction?

Question

If they do, why? If they don't, which ones rotate opposite the earth's rotation?

Answer 1

No.

Venus (and Uranus)

When the direction of rotation is the same as the direction of translation (orbit around the Sun), it is called prograde.
The reverse is called retrograde.

Venus barely spins and does so in a retrograde manner.

The rotation axis of Uranus is tilted by a bit more than 90 degrees from the plane of its orbit around the Sun. Therefore, thechnically, it also has a retrograde rotation. However, we often describe it as spinning on its side.

They (probably) all started off spinning in the same direction as their orbit (i.e., prograde) because that was the motion of the collapsing cloud that formed the solar system. The rotational energy of the cloud got transfered to the planets and satellites ("natural" satellites have prograde orbits around their planet; the ones with retrograde orbits are "captured" moons).

The tidal effect of the Sun would change the tilt of the inner planets (that is what happened to Venus). The same would have happened to Earth, except that the Moon's orbit has a lot of rotational inertia and that has probably protected us from severe changes in rotation tilt.
(I did an essay at M.Sc. level on that topic last year).

Uranus is a little more difficult to explain. Check the link to Uranus on the first Web source below.

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Pluto is also retrograde, but then, it is no longer a planet so, who cares (if you do, look it up -- second link below)

Answer 2

Venus spins the same direction as all the other planets, but does so very slowly, slower than its orbit around the sun, so the apparent motion is the opposite to the other planets. On Venus, the sun would rise in the West and set in the East (if you could see it through the clouds) even though the planet spins in the same direction as the Earth.

Uranus is tilted over, so that although it actually spins in the opposite direction to the other planets, this is hardly noticeable. On Uranus, the sun wouldn't rise and set. Instead, it would travel in a strange spiral, starting at above the north pole, spirally outwards until it was above the equator, then down in a spiral to above the south pole, and back again.

Answer 3

Most of them would pick up their rotation direction from the initial rotation of the pre-solar-system disk. That's why they all go around the Sun in the same direction. But if one of them was hit hard enough by the material in the early disk, or had a close pass with something massive, it could easily reverse the rotation.

Answer 4

The planet Venus rotates in a clockwise motion, and Uranus spins on its side, due to an ancient meteor impact hundreds of thousands of years ago.


But if you mean, do they all orbit the Sun in the same direction, they do, yes.

Answer 5

Venus is the only planet in our solar system that rotates clockwise. all the rest rotate counter clockwise

Answer 6

Uranus rotates in the opposite direction.


Edit: what Raymond said!

Answer 7

All planets except one rotate counter-clockwise on their axes. Only Venus, which has retrograde motion, rotates clockwise on its axis.

The answer, then, is "no" because of Venus.

Answer 8

Around the sun, yes. Otherwise no some spin retrograde.

Answer 9

all except venus it is the pnly planet turning clockwise.. all others turn counterclockwise

Answer 10

Yea..What that scientist sounding guy "Raymond" said. I could have gone my whole life without knowing this, Thanks.