Are there any natural objects in the solar system that rise in the west and set in the east?

sequoianoir

Yes, although it is not down to the object itself but where you view it from or perhaps even WHEN ! The Sun goes from East to West across the sky on Earth because of the direction that the Earth spins. We determine which way east and west are by where we 'put' the north and south poles, and this is determined by the Earth's magnetic field and the measurement of positive and negative. Over the last 20 million years the polarity of the Earth has changed 16 times. The Arctic becoming the South pole and the Antarctic being the home to the North pole. If the same rules apply this effectively reverses east and west and the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east. If you were to observe the Sun rising whilst standing (if you could) on the surface of Venus, Uranus or Pluto then you would also consider it to rise in the west and set in the east. This is because they have 'retrograde' motion. This means that although they are orbiting the Sun in the same direction as all the other planets (including Earth) they actually rotate about their own axis in the opposite direction to all other planets including Earth. Dec 08 02, 5:35 PM

Bryce

Now this is interesting...The inner satellite of Mars, called Phobos, revolves around Mars ever 7 hours 39 minutes. This is less than one third of the rotation period of its parent planet. As a result the easterly orbit of Phobos in the Martian sky far outweighs it apparent westerly motion caused by the rotation of Mars, thus making it rise in the west and set in the east. In addition, Jupiter's outer four satellites, Saturn's moon Phoebe, and Neptune's moon Triton have retrograde orbits around their parent planets which perhaps indicates that they have been captured from the neighboring planets. Dec 08 02, 7:37 PM

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