Did You Know? - September

All the planets in our solar system orbit the Sun in a counter-clockwise direction. They rotate on their axis in a counter-clockwise – west to east – manner. However, there are two exceptions to this rule – Venus and Uranus. 

Venus, which is the second planet from the Sun and sixth in the solar system in size and mass, rotates clockwise – east to west. On the other hand, Uranus, which is the seventh planet from the Sun, rolls on its side while orbiting the Sun.

There are hypotheses that Venus and Uranus originally used to rotate counter-clockwise like the Earth and other planets. However, at some point, they were struck by massive objects, probably other planets or asteroids, which sent them spinning in different directions. Had that not happened, they too would have been spinning like the rest of the planets in our solar system.