Planet Venus is an oddball in the solar system. And this is majorly because of Venus’ rotation. It does something that no planet should ideally do and some have it that an asteroid did it.
Our solar system has eight planets that rotate on their axis as well as around the Sun in their own orbit. Most of the planets have another thing in common and that is they rotate west to east. However, that is not how planet Venus plays the game, instead it does something awesome, it spins from east to west. In effect, while most of the planets spin in a counter-clockwise direction including our Earth, Venus spins in a clockwise direction. Some have it that an asteroid did it. This is something that should not have happened, but it is very much there, according to this report.
Planet Venus is an oddity- a space oddity. Considering that Venus was formed within the solar system, it should have been doing what other planets are doing as far as rotation is concerned and since it is not doing so, there must be a reason behind that. Well, a number of reasons are being surmised and the exact one will become clearer when the missions sent to probe the planet reach there.
Why does Venus rotate clockwise?
Though there are no such confirmed explanations of why Venus spins backward, there are a few theories that might answer this question and one of the answers includes a lot of destruction. One of the most popular explanations for Venus rotating in clockwise direction is that, “In the early history of our solar system, Venus used to spin counter-clockwise just like the other planets, but it reversed its direction after being hit by a giant asteroid. It knocked the planet all the way over and flipped its axis, causing it to spin in the clockwise direction.”
Another reason may have nothing to do with things crashing into Venus. In fact, it may all be internal play of the core and the mantle. Over the millennia, the friction between both can alter the rotation direction of the planet. To this, another ingredient may have contributed. This is the atmosphere of Venus. It is extremely thick and it moves around 60 times faster than the planet itself.
There is one more possibility. This one has it that Venus used to rotate in the same direction as all the other planets, but then it stopped rotating. The reason behind that is that the rotation was unstable and over time, it started to rotate in a direction that was more stable and suited to the planet- exactly the opposite of the Earth’s rotation.
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