Stopped spinning

What do you think might stop it from spinning?

In any case, the laws of physics would always apply.

No type of natural force could possibly stop the Earth (or anything that massive) instantly without destroying it in the process. It would require a collision with an object of dramatically greater mass, which would result in an energy release sufficient to liquify (plasma) most of the planet (thus ruining everyone's day).

On the other hand, the Earth and many other objects, like the moon, do lose their rotation very slowly over time due to tidal locking and other effects. But those things happen so slowly that we would never notice them.

That would be a lot of angular momentum to drain off. This is not going to happen naturally except, perhaps, very, very slowly by tidal forces.

You might want to check out David Niven's Ringworld series.

David Niven is a dead actor. :-)

You're right. I think I meant Larry Niven. Lemme go check.

Yeah, I meant Larry Niven.

"Ringworld," "The Ringworld Engineers," "The Ringworld Throne," etc. Niven is great.

You know, I always thought the best work came from Niven and Pournelle, which is the only collaboration I can think of that really worked. Maybe Niven required more thought than I was ready to put into science fiction.

I liked "The Mote in God's Eye."