this is an amazing discovery...
Recent atmospheric models have shown that the planet could have weather cycles stretching over decades, which could lead to equally long-term changes in the rotation period.
So the Atmosphere is responsible for slowing down the rotation of Venus by 6.5min??? That seems very unlikely. After all, after millions of years in orbit shouldn`t Venus be standing still by then?
Quoting: Anonymous Coward 10558294 [edit:
This is a very rough etimate; I forgot about the difference in rotational inertia for Venus so the numbers here are much to high. However, it is still a
huge amount necessary for this kind of change]
6.5 min in 16 years means that the rotation of Venus slowed down by
25,6 seconds a year!
Venus and earth are roughly the same size. So to understand how much energy would be required to have such an effect of the rotation of a planet let`s look at the Japan earthquake of 2011:
Japan earthquake sped up Earth`s rotation by 1.8 microseconds a day or 0,0000018 seconds a day
In a year that would translate to
0,000657 seconds a year But remember that 25,6 seconds is 38,864 times more significant (longer) than 0,000657 seconds
The Japan earthquake was equivalent to
9,320 gigatons of TNT, or approximately 600 million times the energy of the Hiroshima bomb.
25,6 seconds a year would then translate to 9,320 gigatons x 38,864 =
362,221,480 gigatons of TNT But then we still have to multiply this by 16 years which is 6.5min = 5,795,399,690 gigatons of TNT
To grasp this number we can multiply 38,864 x 16 = 621,824
So imagine An earthquake which is 621,824 times stronger than the Japan earthquake and you get the idea of how much energy it would require to slow down Venus by 6.5min!!!
[edit:
a more accurate estimate is 2657 times stronger!]A
tremendous energy would be required to slow down a planet the size of Venus! I am no expert on climate, but to say that this could have been caused by weather patterns sounds extremely far fetched. There simply isn`t enough energy.
