Why do all the planets revolve around the sun in the same direction?

Perhaps if the planets of the solar system were traveling in different directions around the sun, they would collide with each other, which slows their movement and may end up falling into the sun. However, the planets in our solar system are moving in the same direction around the sun, but how did that happen and why?

According to the Popular Mechanics website, it is believed that this occurred simply as a result of the initial rotation of the cloud of gas and dust that condensed to form the sun and planets approximately 4 billion years ago.

And when the planets were formed from the matter inside this cloud, they all ended up orbiting around the sun in the same direction, in about the same orbital plane and in the same direction of rotation around their axis, regardless of Venus and Uranus, which may have been collided by other bodies, which changed their rotation.

Rotation of a gas and dust cloud

If we could go back 4.6 billion years, we would see space without our known solar system.

Instead, we will find a large cloud of gas and dust called the "solar nebula."

And nebulae in general are the end result of the death throes of a star when it exploding all its material, yet nebulae are the nursery of new stars and their companion planets as well.

This applies to our solar system, as the modern interpretation of the formation of our solar system says that waves of enormous energy caused by the explosion of a nearby star in the form of a supernova led to the collapse of our solar nebula and the collapse of this cloud, which led to the formation of a central point with strong gravity around which the rest of the cloud revolves condensed.

As a result, the pressure of the core forced hydrogen atoms to fuse and form helium, releasing a massive amount of heat and light, devouring more than 99% of the available matter in the cloud.

The center of the collapsing nebula became the sun, and the rest of the matter clumped together to form our familiar planets, moons, and other rocky bodies such as asteroids.

With the collapse of the solar nebula, the gravitational forces of the components of that cloud began to attract the scattered pieces within a flat circular disk rotating around itself.

Because angular momentum is conserved, i.e. the speed of rotation of an object about a central axis, the speed of rotation of the cloud increases and is flattened.

The planets of the solar system formed later from this disk, maintaining the same direction of rotation of the disk.

Do all planets rotate counterclockwise?

When looking from the top of the sun's north pole, you'll notice that most objects in our solar system travel around the sun in a counterclockwise direction.

This is also due to the initial conditions in the gas and dust cloud from which our solar system was formed. This rotation occurred in a counterclockwise direction.

Based on astronomers' observations, there is no specific direction for collapsing material to rotate, but once formed it can rotate clockwise or counterclockwise and stars throughout the galaxy appear to point in random directions as well.

But there is in astronomy the so-called retro-orbital motion, so what is it?

retro orbits

Retrograde orbit motion, in astronomy, is the actual or apparent orbital motion of an object in the opposite direction of the rotation of the central body it orbits and opposite to the motions of most planets in the solar system or other astronomical systems.

In the solar system, all the major planets revolve counterclockwise around the sun, and they all rotate on their own axes, but there are exceptions for some planets that have a retrograde rotation such as Venus and Uranus, where Venus revolves around the sun in a clockwise direction while Uranus rolls on its side and is revolves around the sun.

Retro orbital motion model (websites)

Some comets and asteroids also orbit the Sun in retrograde orbits, because their relatively small masses make it easier for larger space objects to pull them away from their original directions.

There have been many hypotheses about the cause of the retrograde rotation of Venus and Uranus, as it is believed that Venus and Uranus were rotating in an anticlockwise direction until it changed a huge impact on the direction of their rotation.

While it is believed that the planet Uranus collided with an object the size of the Earth, which changed its rotation.

Some also say that the planet Venus colliding with some asteroids may have changed the direction of rotation while revolving around the sun.

According to astronomers as well, it is believed that the movement of both planets Jupiter and Saturn may have affected these two small planets and changed their movement.

Another hypothesis indicates that Venus rotates in the same direction as the other planets, but it rotates upside down, so looking at it from other planets makes its rotation appear to be heading backwards, unlike the rotation of the rest of the planets.