2007-06-14 04:27:22 · 13 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Basically because of the moon. The moon's orbit is kinda like a tether -made out of gravity- that keeps earth spinning on its axis, and keeps those axis within a small area. If we didn't have the moon, then our world's rotation would go haywire. It wouldn't just spin on one direction. It would topple as it rotated. This would play major havoc with our enviornment (like entire oceans flowing onto land) and pretty much make earth unliveable.
As far as why we rotate in the general direction we do, it probably has to do with our orbit around the Sun, but make no mistake about it. If the moon hadn't gotten stuck into orbit at some point in the past, then earth's rotation would have never been stable enough for anything to thrive here.
2007-06-14 05:00:14 · answer #1 · answered by Nunna Yorz 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
okay, when the solar system was really young there were MANY planets orbiting the sun and because of the mass amount of planets they would collide and break apart and form asteroids. well the earth is the biggest rock planet in the solar system, and was the biggest when it was young too. a planet collided with the earth spinning it in one direction and taking a gigantic chunk out of the surface. the remaining rocks from this collision formed a ring of rocks around the earth. over time the rocks condensed into a gigantic sphere that we call the Moon. we know this because many of the rock samples we have found contain the same nutrients found on earth. the collision also tilted earth on its axis. now for the past 4.5 billion years the earth has been spinning on the same axs and spinning at roughly the same speed because there is no air friction in space to slow down the earth. our rotation is slowing down though because of the moon's gravitational pull. but that is very minute.
2007-06-14 04:40:49 · answer #2 · answered by TrevaThaKilla 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well - here I am looking at it from the other side and it IS turning in the opposite direction!
2007-06-14 08:01:34 · answer #3 · answered by Martin 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
At present, the Earth orbits the Sun once for every roughly 366.26 times it rotates about its axis (which is equal to 365.26 solar days).[2] The Earth's axis of rotation is tilted 23.5°[3] (away from the perpendicular to its orbital plane), producing seasonal variations on the planet's surface.
gravitational pull.
2007-06-14 04:39:39 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
It turns in the direction the disc of debris it came from was turning.
2007-06-17 07:18:46 · answer #5 · answered by johnandeileen2000 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because, as the Solar System formed out of a rotating and collapsing cloud of gasses and dust, angular momentum had to be conserved and so it spins in the same direction around it's axis as it orbits around the Sun.
Doug
2007-06-14 04:31:56 · answer #6 · answered by doug_donaghue 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋
It has to spin one way. If it was spinning the opposite direction you could still ask the same thing.
2007-06-14 04:31:05 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
don't know but mercury is the only planet in our solorsystem that spins the other way and Neptune has the only moon that spins opposite to the rotation of the planet.
2007-06-14 04:32:55 · answer #8 · answered by Ste B 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Gravitional Pull
2007-06-14 04:30:00 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
totaly agree with cheese a... it doesnt make a jot of difference .... other planets may spin the other way because of a collision whistle forming....
2007-06-17 03:06:39 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋