Venus is the second planet of the solar system. Its neighbors are Mercury and the Earth. The planet was named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty - Venus. However, it soon turned out that the planet’s surface had nothing to do with the beautiful.
Knowledge of this celestial body was very scarce until the middle of the 20th century due to the dense clouds hiding Venus from the view of telescopes. However, with the development of technical capabilities, mankind has learned many new and interesting facts about this amazing planet. Many of them have raised a number of questions, so far without answers.
Today we will discuss hypotheses explaining why Venus rotates counterclockwise, and we will tell interesting facts about it, known to planetary scientists today.
What do we know about Venus?
In the 60s, scientists still had a hope that the conditions on the planet are suitable for living organisms. These hopes and ideas were embodied in their works by science fiction writers who spoke of the planet as a tropical paradise.
However, after spacecraft were sent to the planet, providing the first idea of the surface of Venus, scientists came to disappointing conclusions.
Venus is not only unsuitable for life, it has a very aggressive atmosphere, which destroyed the first few spaceships sent to its orbit. But despite the fact that the connection with them was lost, the researchers still managed to get an idea of the chemical composition of the planet’s atmosphere and its surface.
Researchers were also interested in the question of why Venus rotates counterclockwise, just like Uranus.
Twin planet
Today it is known that Venus and the Earth are very similar in physical characteristics. Both of them belong to the terrestrial group of planets, like Mars and Mercury. These four planets have few satellites or do not have them at all, have a weak magnetic field and are devoid of a ring system.
Venus and Earth have similar mass and size (Venus is only slightly inferior to our Earth), and also rotate in similar orbits. However, the similarity ends here. Otherwise, the planet is in no way similar to Earth.
The atmosphere on Venus is very aggressive and consists of 95% carbon dioxide. The temperature of the planet is absolutely unsuitable for life, as it reaches 475 ° C. In addition, there is a very high pressure on the planet (92 times higher than on Earth), which will crush a person if he suddenly decides to take a walk on its surface. Destroy all living things and clouds of sulfur dioxide, creating precipitation from sulfuric acid. The layer of these clouds reaches 20 km. Despite its poetic name, the planet is a hell of a place.
What is the speed of rotation of Venus around its axis? As it turned out as a result of research, one Venusian day is equal to 243 Earth days. The planet rotates at a speed of only 6.5 km / h (for comparison, the speed of rotation of our Earth is 1670 km / h). Moreover, one Venusian year is 224 Earth days.
Why does Venus rotate counterclockwise?
This question has worried scientists for more than a decade. However, so far no one has been able to answer him. There were many hypotheses, but not one of them has yet been confirmed. Nevertheless, we will consider some of the most popular and interesting ones.
The fact is that if you look at the planets of the solar system from above, Venus rotates counterclockwise, while all other celestial bodies (except Uranus) rotate clockwise. These include not only planets, but also asteroids and comets.
Seen from the North Pole, Uranus and Venus rotate clockwise, and all other celestial bodies are against it.
Causes of the rotation of Venus counterclockwise
However, what caused this deviation from the norm? Why does Venus rotate counterclockwise? There are several popular hypotheses.
- Once, at the dawn of the formation of our solar system, there were no planets around the sun. There was only one gas-dust disk, which rotated clockwise, which eventually passed to other planets. A similar rotation was observed in Venus. However, soon the planet probably collided with a huge body that crashed into it against its rotation. Thus, the cosmic object seemed to “launch” the motion of Venus in the opposite direction. Perhaps Mercury is to blame. This is one of the most interesting theories, which explains several surprising facts at once. Once upon a time, Mercury was probably a satellite of Venus. However, he later ran into it tangentially, giving Venus part of its mass. He himself flew into a lower orbit around the Sun. That is why its orbit has a curved line, and Venus rotates in the opposite direction.
- Venus can rotate the atmosphere. The width of its layer reaches 20 km. Moreover, its mass is slightly less than the earth. The density of the atmosphere of Venus is very high and literally squeezes the planet. Perhaps it is the dense atmosphere that rotates the planet in a different direction, which explains why it rotates so slowly - only 6.5 km / h.
- Other scientists, observing how Venus rotates around its axis, came to the conclusion that the planet was turned upside down. It continues to move in the same direction as other planets, however, because of its position, it rotates in the opposite direction. Scientists believe that such a phenomenon could have caused the influence of the Sun, which caused strong gravitational tides in combination with friction between the mantle and the core of Venus itself.
Conclusion
Venus is a planet of the earth group, unique in nature. The reason it rotates in the opposite direction is still a mystery to humanity. Perhaps someday we will solve it. In the meantime, we can only build assumptions and hypotheses.