Re: planetary and atmospheric rotation - origins, direction, etc

On 2008-02-29, Larry Caldwell <firstnamelastinitial@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
If Venus underwent such a massive collision, where is the debris?
Venus should have one or more moons accreted from the debris.

Slowly rotating planets are very unlikely to have moons. If a moon
orbits faster than the planet, then tidal effects act to decelerate
it. If there was a moon or debris ring, it would long ago have been
decelerated and re-impacted.

E.g. Phobos will impact Mars within less than 100 million years,
because it is orbiting faster than Mars rotates.


- Tim
.