All of the planets rotate from west to east?
It seems a simple matter to decide whether a planet rotates from the west toward the east. But remember, in order to know which is east and west., you must first decide which directions are north and south. On one of the planets, we could argue about the north and south poles. And if we take one side of the argument, then we must decide that this planet rotates in a westerly direction.’ The sun rotates from west to east on its axis, and all the planets revolve around the sun in the same direction. The earth rotates 3n an easterly direction, and the moon also orbits the earth from west to east. In fact, the general swing of the entire solar system seems to be in the same easterly direction. We call this path the direct motion of the heavenly bodies, when an object travels in the opposite direction, we say that its motion is retrograde. The planets sometimes make a retrograde loop against the background of fixed stars. And one of the planets may be said to rotate in a retrograde directio
