Planets spinning

[kermit911]

Do all planets spin, *I'm not sure how to word this* like earth? Or are there planets that spin Top to bottom? Earth as an example North Pole to South Pole. Are there planets that don't spin at all?

Thanx

[gen2]

All the planets spin.

Our moon (which by some definitions is a planet) rotates once in every orbit thus keeping the same side facing the Earth.

The slowest rotating of the main planets is Mercury which rotates three times for every two completed orbits round the sun.

Uranus rotates on its side, having an axial tilt of 98 degrees (or 82 degrees - depending on your definition of North pole).

[gen2]

Correction:
Venus is the slowest rotator. It completes an orbit every 224.7 of our days and its own rotation takes 243 days.
Sorry about that - I should have checked before I posted instead of relying on memory

[Sphinx_Svens]

Surely you're only referring to planets in our solar system ... until we've seen ALL the planets, how can we say?

[mibn2cweus]

Inclination of axis is angle of rotation (spin) relative to orbital plane.

planet data

[WaldoMcFroog]

The important thing about rotation is that all the planets would originally have spun in the same direction in the same orbital plane. It is collisions with other large objects that have changed the orientation of the three planets that are out of the norm:

Uranus rotates nearly on its side relative to its orbit.
Venus has an axial tilt of less than 3�, but rotates backwards.
Pluto has an axial tilt of 122.54� (to its orbit) and 115.60� (to the ecliptic), but is subject to much debate as to whether it should even be classed as a planet.

[FC]

Keep in mind, also, that while models of the solar system show everything evenly on a single plane that in space this is not necessarily true. Who's to say Earth isn't the one spinning on a different axis and some other planet should not be our frame of reference? It's partly in how we choose to align our solar system, much like how people choose to organize maps.