To: SunkenCiv
Maybe something catastrophic happened early in the formation of the star's solar system to have those disks orbiting in different directions
13 posted on
06/29/2006 12:48:16 AM PDT by
garbageseeker
(Gentleman, you can't fight in here, this is the War Room - Dr. Strangelove)
To: garbageseeker; Swordmaker
There's also the matter of transfer of momentum through tidal forces; satellites in prograde gain momentum and climb to higher orbit, while satellites in retrograde do the opposite. The parent body's rotation rate slows with prograde satellites and accelerates with retrograde satellites. There's also a tidal transfer from satellite to the parent body, which is one reason (for example) the Earth's Moon shows the same face toward the Earth.
14 posted on
06/29/2006 1:00:57 AM PDT by
SunkenCiv
(updated my FR profile on Wednesday, June 21, 2006.)
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