The Influence of Venus’s Atmosphere on Its Rotation

KOMPAS.com – The planet Venus has a dense and toxic atmosphere of carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid, which causes a runaway greenhouse effect that pushes surface temperatures to 475 degrees Celsius.

Another unique thing about Venus is that although Venus completes its orbit around the sun in 225 Earth days, it takes 243 Earth days for the planet to rotate on its axis. This means that a year on Venus is shorter than one day.

According to Space, a study conducted by University of California astrophysicist Stephen Kane suggests that Venus’s thick and stormy atmosphere may be the cause of this uniqueness.

The influence of the atmosphere on the rotation of Venus

The atmosphere is considered to be a thin, almost discrete layer over a planet that has minimal interaction with the solid planet.

Also read: Scientists Deny There is Life on the Planet Venus

However, Kane said, Venus’ strong atmosphere shows that the atmosphere is a much more integrated part of the planet and influences everything, even the speed at which Venus rotates.

Kane argued that without an atmosphere, Venus’ rotation speed would reach a speed matching its orbit around the sun, a phenomenon known as tidal locking.

Tidally locked celestial bodies are under the gravitational influence of much larger bodies. The gravity of the larger body keeps the rotation period of the smaller body in sync with its orbit around the larger body.

This means that a smaller body completes one rotation in the same time as completing one orbit or one year equals one day.

Also read: Is There Rain on the Planet Venus?

Tidal locking occurs over long periods of time. In fact, it may take millions of years for one year to align with daylight.

To investigate why Venus’ rotation is so slow, Kane calculated how long it would take Venus to experience tidal locking. The calculation takes into account the size of both objects, mass, gravity and rotation rate.

He discovered that it actually only takes 6.5 million years for Venus to experience tides. Therefore, there must be another cause that causes Venus’ rotation not to match its orbit, and Kane believes the reason is the atmosphere.

Kane explained that very strong winds cause the atmosphere to be dragged along the planet’s surface as it circulates. This slows the planet’s rotation while loosening the sun’s gravitational grip.

Also read: Has a Spacecraft Ever Landed on Venus?

Paradoxically, the sun acts as a force that allows the atmosphere to eliminate tidal resistance.

According to Kane, the sun’s gravity wants to lock Venus’s tides, but energy from the sun provides a lot of driving force in Venus’ atmosphere, preventing tidal locking by making the atmosphere much more dynamic.

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2023-09-16 15:00:00
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