lol 
Also rings seem to always follow the planet's direction. Or at least I haven't encountered a ring system that would rotate against the planet's rotation - don't even know if it can happen IRL. Probably yes, if the ring is created by a destruction of a moon that rotated the other way, maybe?
Anyway, one cool thing, though - different parts of the ring system usually rotate with different speeds and the difference is sometimes quite spectacular when you're on the edge of one and looking at another, or you manage to drop between the two parts, if there's a gap. (Also, don't try to fly from one to the other. Baaad)
Also rings seem to always follow the planet's direction. Or at least I haven't encountered a ring system that would rotate against the planet's rotation - don't even know if it can happen IRL. Probably yes, if the ring is created by a destruction of a moon that rotated the other way, maybe?
Anyway, one cool thing, though - different parts of the ring system usually rotate with different speeds and the difference is sometimes quite spectacular when you're on the edge of one and looking at another, or you manage to drop between the two parts, if there's a gap. (Also, don't try to fly from one to the other. Baaad
)
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The rotation of large bodies like planets is determined by the direction of rotation of the original gas cloud from which the system formed, so most planets, moons and other objects will orbit the sun and rotate in the same direction as the sun. Objects that rotate differently can be as a result of a number of events, collisions between objects can affect direction of rotation, it can also flip planets on end, for instance the earth is tilted 23.5 degrees, possibly caused by the collision that formed our moon. Uranus is titled by 98%, so essentially it's axis of rotation is pointed almost directly at the sun. It's possible that venus's direction of rotation was caused by an event that flipped the planet by 180% in the direction of it's orbit, hence it would appear to be spinning opposite the rest of the solar system, but it's actually spinning with it's original spin, but flipped over.
Other causes of odd spins and orbits could be because objects actually originated outside the solar system and retain the spin direction of their original system and an orbit that depends on the capture dynamics at time of arrival. Keep in mind that the galaxy is also spinning and all stars derive their spin from that original condensing gas cloud that formed the galaxy, so the majority of stars and planets should have similar rotation directions, but there has been plenty of time and events that would change this for a lot of systems so there is sure to be a lot of variety out there.
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Space, the one thing that might be stranger than the human race... just when you think you have it figured out, along comes some anomaly to disprove everything you thought you knew, and then when that isn't enough to throw you off, you find out that black holes evaporate, like jellyfish.
Isn't it all relative? (pun intended) If you view Earth from above the north pole , rotation counter, from above south pole, appears clockwise
In space everything is relative, at least that's what my uncle told me, and he's relative so he should know
In space everything is relative, at least that's what my uncle told me, and he's relative so he should know
I really didn't expect to smile so early, this morning. Thank you.
In space everything is relative, at least that's what my uncle told me, and he's relative so he should know
Soooo, two people who don't know each other become relatives when they go to space?
Not only that, but they even become relative to the Earth!