How does the earth keep spinning on its axis?

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SUMMARY

The Earth maintains its axial spin primarily due to the minimal drag present in space, which is not a perfect vacuum. While the initial energy from its formation contributes to this spin, there is a gradual deceleration caused by gravitational interactions with the Moon. Additionally, the Earth does lose some energy through infrared radiation, but this loss is negligible compared to the overall momentum of its rotation.

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alias25
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how does the Earth keep spining on its axis?
is it because it still has the energy it gained when it was formed because it doesn't lose energy into space cause there's no particles out there, but then i was thinking does it loes any energy through IR radiation?
just curious.
 
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Your initial supposition is essentially correct; the Earth continues to spin because space has very little drag to slow it down. However, space is not exactly perfectly empty, so there is some drag. This drag contributes a tiny bit to the fact that the Earth is indeed slowing down very gradually. However, most of this deceleration is due to gravitational influence from the moon.
 

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