- #1
Timoothy
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Uranus rotates on its side and its poles always point in the same direction...
http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~barnes/ast110_06/quizzes/disc02_fig01.png
...if it was moved close enough to the sun to become tidally locked, would it necessarily lose all of its current rotation by the time it became tidally locked?
Our moon is already tidally locked, so if it was struck by a large body which created a sideways rotation like Uranus has, could it remain tidally locked to Earth without losing its (new) sideways rotation?
Can a planet or moon rotate on two different axes, and if so, would the two rotations tend to slow each other down until it has only one axis of rotation?
http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~barnes/ast110_06/quizzes/disc02_fig01.png
...if it was moved close enough to the sun to become tidally locked, would it necessarily lose all of its current rotation by the time it became tidally locked?
Our moon is already tidally locked, so if it was struck by a large body which created a sideways rotation like Uranus has, could it remain tidally locked to Earth without losing its (new) sideways rotation?
Can a planet or moon rotate on two different axes, and if so, would the two rotations tend to slow each other down until it has only one axis of rotation?
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