Angular Momentum – How Do Planets and Sun Get Their Initial Spin?

angular momentumconservation-lawsnewtonian-mechanicsplanetssolar system

  1. How do the Planets and Sun get their initial rotation?

  2. Why do Venus and Mercury rotate so slowly compared to other planets?

  3. Why does Venus rotate in a different direction to Mercury, Earth and Mars?

Best Answer

To build on Martin Beckett's answer (especially because I am not sure how familiar you are with physics);

Currently we believe Stars form when objects known as Molecular Clouds (which are as one might guess, clouds of molecules in space, mostly comprised of hydrogen) collapse. It is important to note that these clouds are not 'static', they have some kind of motion, including some kind of 'average rotation', which is to say that overall the cloud is rotating (usually fairly slowly).

As was mentioned in Martin Beckett's answer, angular momentum is conserved; the typical example to give is to imagine a spinning figure skater, as she brings her arms in close to her body, she spins faster. If you don't believe this and have access to an office chair, it is easy to convince yourself (and possibly injure yourself too...). This holds true for the molecular cloud as well. As it collapses in on itself, it starts rotating faster and faster, forming a disc. The bulk of this coalesces into a big ball of hydrogen at the centre, which will eventually form a star. The matter in the disc slowly starts to clump together more and more to form the planets (it's a little more complicated than this, but if you're interested it's an easy topic to read up on). Similarly to how the overall cloud starts spinning faster and faster, the matter that forms these planets was spinning and maintains its spin as it clumps together into planets.

The previous post has covered your other questions.

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