wind on other planets

einsteinsdog | 10:42 Fri 25th Nov 2005 | Science

7 Answers

Does the wind on other planets travel in the same rotational directional as on earth , ie anticlockwise in the nh..

Ghost Baiting

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WaldoMcFroog

All the planets in our solar system rotate about the sun in the same direction and in the same plane, apart from Pluto, which is at an angle of 17 degrees to the 'horizontal'. They all rotate counter clockwise if viewed from above the north pole - i.e. from West to East. The exceptions to this are Venus, which rotates backwards and Uranus, which rotates at 90 degrees to the others. In both cases scientists believe that the originally rotated in the same direction as the others (consistent with Big Bang theory), but were later knocked from their axis by collisions with other bodies such as planetoids or asteroids.

Given this, one would expect similar patterns for all the planets moving in the same plane.

Clanad

In line with Waldo's posting, the Coriolis Affect causes winds and weather on those planets that have an atmosphere. This is the phenomena caused by the rotation of the planetary body's interaction with its atmosphere. This presupposes the planet has an atmosphere, which Mercury and probably Pluto do not...

einsteinsdog

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This question requires a `yes` or `no` answer

Thanks for the technical tour de force , but the question is purely about wind on other planets.

WaldoMcFroog

...but as the combination of my answer and Clanad's shows, the question can't be answered so simply! Is this for a quiz or something?

einsteinsdog

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does the coriolis effect work the same on any planet with atmosphere?

einsteinsdog

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Sorry my earlier answer was a bit curt !!!