Why do stars, planets, ect. rotate?

Question

I was also wondering why the sun spins faster at it's center than it does at it's poles? Please, educated answers only. Thanks!

...please (no offense) but no religious answers

Yes but the sun doesn't spin like a cd. A cd completes 1 revolution at the center and the outside at the same time. The sun takes 25 days for the equator to rotate and approximately 30 days to rotate at it's poles. I just thought this was kind of odd.

Answer 1

This rotation around themselves (spin) and around some other body is a legacy of the whirling which took place somewhere in the beginning. The spiral shape of nebulas lends credence to that, isn't it?

About the second part of your question, I have no idea, esp. if you meant that the angular velocities at the equator and the poles are different.

Answer 2

Objects in space rotate because it is difficult to form anything in such a way that it isn't given a bump on one side or the other. Once they begin rotating, it is difficult to stop, because almost every force exerted on the body acts at its center of gravity, and you can't stop rotation with a force at the center. A few objects, such as the moon, do not rotate. As you know, the moon always faces in the same direction toward the earth.

If objects in space are elongated, like comets, are irregularly shaped, like asteroids, contain movable components, like the earth's oceans, or have a bulge, gravity can increase or reduce rotation by acting on the irregular part of the shape.

The second question is easier to answer than the first. Visualize a spinning CD. Its outside rim moves quite fast. Near the center, it moves more slowly, and the exact center rotates without moving. This is true of any rigid body. Bodies that are not so rigid behave much the same way, but their equators tend to bulge due to centrifugal force, and their poles are drawn in as a consequence. It is still the equator that moves rapidly nd the poles that rotate, but do not move.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

There are two types of celestial rotation, for example, that of a planet on it's axis and that of a planet around the sun. Our earths axis rotation provides us with a constant source of light over the entire planet in day / night and the rotation around the sun provides for varying seasons. But not all celestial bodies rotate to the same degree or at all.

Take our moon. It does not rotate on it's axis, the same side of the moon always faces the earth, but it does rotate around the earth.

Also everything rotates slower at the top of a rotating object than at the center of the same object. The earth rotational speed is greatest along the equator at roughly 25,000 MPH and every mile you go North or South from the equator towards the poles it becomes slower. Eventually if you could find the exact point of the earths North / South rotation, the speed would be absolutely zero.

Answer 4

Stars and planets form in the collapse of huge clouds of interstellar gas and dust. The material in these clouds is in constant motion, and the clouds themselves are in motion, orbiting in the aggregate gravity of the galaxy. As a result of this movement, the cloud will most likely have some slight rotation as seen from a point near its center. This rotation can be described as angular momentum, a conserved measure of its motion that cannot change. Conservation of angular momentum explains why an ice skater spins more rapidly as she pulls her arms in. As her arms come closer to her axis of rotation, her speed increases and her angular momentum remains the same. Similarly, her rotation slows when she extends her arms at the conclusion of the spin.

In our solar system, the giant gas planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) spin more rapidly on their axes than the inner planets do and possess most of the system's angular momentum. The sun itself rotates slowly, only once a month.

Answer 5

you know how a really hot spark jumps around a bit when it hits the ground, well same principle. these entities need to liberate energy, because of various laws of physics. being that stars are relatively ' stuck' ...and note that i said relatively and know what relative means... they are stuck in their position, so the rotation helps to liberate energy which needs to be spent at a quicker rate

Answer 6

they rotate becuse of gravitational pulls, they are not all pulling at the same constant rate, so they rotate differently. and they pull faster at its center because of centrifugal forces.

Answer 7

Thats the way God designed it.

Answer 8

....and why does my ex husband still breathe?