Sunday, December 3, 2017

astrophysics - Why does each celestial object spin on its own axis?


AFAIK all the celestial objects have a spin motion around its axis. What is the reason for this? If it must rotate by some theory, what decides it's direction and speed of rotation?


Is there any object that does not rotate about its axis?



Answer




In general yes, everything rotates. It is to do with something called angular moment. Gravity is the central force in the Universe, because it is the only one which has a significant pull over large distances. When things collapse under their own gravity in space (i.e. clouds of gas and dust), any small amount of asymmetry in the collapse will be enough start it spinning. Even if it spins by a tiny amount, as it collapses, angular momentum conservation will mean it spins more and more quickly - just like an spinning ice-skater pulling their arms into their body and spinning more quickly. This means that all coherent masses are spinning - e.g. asteroids, neutron stars, galaxies, quasars.


The Universe is a complex place so something may be slowing down (because the gravity of other objects is putting on the brakes) or some things may appear not to be rotating (e.g. the Moon rotates but at the same rate as it goes around the Earth).


Huge clouds of gas and dust tend not to be spinning as a whole because they are expanding to fill the available volume - like a bad smell in room! - and not necessarily gravitational bound together. However they might have little pockets which start are turbulent, collapse under their own gravity, spin and form stars.


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