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Spoo said:
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MasterChiToes said:
The Terrestrial planets can be expected to turn slower due to 'tidal forces' dissipating their rotational angular momentum. If you check out the length of a day on ancient earth, it was much shorter than the Jovian planets.
In general, for a stable climate, I would agree that smaller planets better turn slower.
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I think you would have to make a number of assumptions about the event that formed the Moon to know what Earth's original rotation rate was. Although, I agree that it must have slowed since then.
Also, tidal forces would have little effect on Mars (two very small moons), and none on Venus (no moons) - although something must have happened to Venus to make it rotate "backwards". It's generally thought that terrestrial planets with a satellite as large as the Moon are very rare. However, Mercury's rotation is very strongly determined by tidal forces from the Sun.
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Venus's odd rotation (very slow
retrograde) combined with the entire surface being only ~500 million years old (evenly random distribution of craters over entire planet = same age for entire surface, the number of craters gives the rough age estimate) adds up to one known cause: a
huge farking impact event.