Venus tidal-locked but fast atmosphere?

Forums: Astronomy, Venus, Tidal-Lockage
Email this Topic • Print this Page

https://www.digitaltrends.com/news/venus-atmosphere-superrotation/
Apparently Venus' atmosphere rotates at a much slower rate than its atmosphere, and its upper atmosphere rotates even faster.

This article describes the slowness of Venus' rotation as a form of tidal-locking, i.e. what Earth's moon does as it orbits always with the same side facing us.

Although the article doesn't mention anything about what might cause the tidal-lockage, I wonder if asymmetry could have something to do with it. I.e. if a planet or moon is more asymmetrical, would it be more prone to resisting rotation, in that its more massive side would resist its momentum of rotation a bit each time it rotates relative to the tidal pulls of its fulcrum body (i.e. the star or planet it orbits)?

If asymmetry causes rotation to slow down in this way, the next question is why/how a planet like Earth maintains a relatively fast rotation. I suspect the presence of liquid oceans and other mechanisms for redistributing asymmetrical features to make the planet more symmetrical could help Earth maintain its rotational momentum despite the sun's gravity.

What's more, maybe the moon also helps to buffer the sun's tidal pull on Earth by responding to the sun's gravity without being connected with the rest of the Earth and thus able to transfer the 'braking' to it.

So do you agree that asymmetry could cause gravity to have a braking-effect on orbiting planets and moons so that they gradually tend to lose rotational momentum and enter into tidal-lockage with the star/planet they orbit, or not and why?

Topic Stats
Top Replies
Link to this Topic

Type: Discussion • Score: 0 • Views: 811 • Replies: 8

No top replies

@livinglava,

Quote:

Apparently Venus' atmosphere rotates at a much slower rate than its atmosphere, and its upper atmosphere rotates even faster

nya yewyim ??

1 Reply

@farmerman,

farmerman wrote:

Quote:
Apparently Venus' atmosphere rotates at a much slower rate than its atmosphere, and its upper atmosphere rotates even faster
nya yewyim ??

Why can't you just engage in discussion, if you so choose? You turn every thread into a fight.

Read the linked article if you want. Discuss the topic if you want.

Don't ruin the thread with negative drama.

1 Reply

@livinglava,

Im a baad speller. You have little skill in sentence construction. I really tried to understand what you were getting at. I dont have the interest to spend time reading long articles peppered with silly ads unless your topic soundsinteresting. You fail to do that time and again.

Stop whining and learn to compose a simple declarative sentence.

1 Reply

@farmerman,

farmerman wrote:

Im a baad speller. You have little skill in sentence construction. I really tried to understand what you were getting at. I dont have the interest to spend time reading long articles peppered with silly ads unless your topic soundsinteresting. You fail to do that time and again.

Stop whining and learn to compose a simple declarative sentence.

If you don't want to bother with the article or what I'm saying about it, you don't have to post.

You don't have to come spray graffiti on something that you have no interest in.

1 Reply

@livinglava,

Most other peopl , when responding to "I dont unerstand", would merely say , oops, "What I meant to say was (XXXXXX)" and the wed be off. NOT YOU, I merely asked you "What?" and because you instantly take umbrage you lash out at me in a fashion equivalent to screaming .
Sorry , I didnt realize you are that touchy
You set up the thread. Its your responsibility to assure any participant deserves at least some initial clarity rather than being hollered at and accused of **** that was never intended.

Im always correcting mysel and seeing that people understand me cause sometimes I lapse into jargon unaware that its not familiar terminology.

1 Reply

@farmerman,

farmerman wrote:

Most other peopl , when responding to "I dont unerstand", would merely say , oops, "What I meant to say was (XXXXXX)" and the wed be off. NOT YOU, I merely asked you "What?" and because you instantly take umbrage you lash out at me in a fashion equivalent to screaming .
Sorry , I didnt realize you are that touchy
You set up the thread. Its your responsibility to assure any participant deserves at least some initial clarity rather than being hollered at and accused of **** that was never intended.

Im always correcting mysel and seeing that people understand me cause sometimes I lapse into jargon unaware that its not familiar terminology.

You just chime into threads to stir up drama and pick fights. Every once in a while you toss in something intelligent to make it seem like you're not just interested in fighting a turning threads into chaos, but ultimately you create chaos. You're doing it now by continuing to reply in this thread without discussing the topic. You still haven't read the article, nor do you want to. You want to manipulate me to keep explaining in different words so you can keep calling them 'word salad' and otherwise picking fights.

1 Reply

@livinglava,

Re-read your own first sentence in the first post and get back to us.

1 Reply

@lmur,

lmur wrote:

Re-read your own first sentence in the first post and get back to us.

If you read the article linked from the OP, the second paragraph reads as follows:

Quote:

A Venusian day, which is one full rotation of the planet, takes 243 Earth days, but its atmosphere rotates 60 times faster than this, with the top of the clouds rotating all the way around the planet in just four Earth days. And as you look higher in the atmosphere, the rotation becomes faster. This phenomenon, called superrotation, was first discovered in the 1960s but until now, scientists have been puzzled as to what caused it.

0 Replies

Venus tidal-locked but fast atmosphere?

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know