"If not for the soupy, fast-moving atmosphere on Venus, Earth’s sister planet would likely not rotate. Instead, Venus would be locked in place, always facing the sun the way the same side of the moon always faces Earth.

The gravity of a large object in space can keep a smaller object from spinning, a phenomenon called tidal locking. Because it prevents this locking, a UC Riverside scientist argues the atmosphere needs to be a more prominent factor in studies of Venus as well as other planets."

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