Reflection

BITS ‘N’ PIECES

Narrated ‘Abdur-Rahman bin Samura (R.A):

The Prophet (P.B.U.H.) said, “O ‘Abdur-Rahman! Do not seek to be a ruler, for if you are given authority on your demand, then you will be held responsible for it, but if you are given it without asking (for it), then you will be helped (by Allah) in it. If you ever take an oath to do something and later on you find that something else is better, then you should expiate your oath and do what is better.”

Sahih Bukhari, Volume 9, Book 89, Number 260

Venus is the only planet in our solar system that spins clockwise

Venus orbits the Sun in an anticlockwise direction like all the other planets in the Solar System. But unlike the other planets, our rocky neighbour rotates clockwise about its axis.

The second planet from the Sun and one of four terrestrial planets in our solar system, Venus is the Earth’s nearest planetary counterpart and is closest in mass and density to the planet we call home. Its atmosphere comprises primarily of carbon dioxide (96.5 percent) and nitrogen (3.5 percent), and its mean surface temperature is a scorching 464 °C.

Venus completes an orbit around the Sun in 224.7 Earth days, and rotates clockwise – unlike other plants that appear to rotate anticlockwise when viewed from above north pole – once every 243 days, the slowest rotation of any planet. The Venusian day, therefore, lasts longer than a Venusian year!

Venus, however, isn’t the only anomaly when it comes to rotation in our solar system. Gaseous ice giant Uranus – the seventh planet from the Sun – spins on its side, with a rotational period of 17 hours, 14 minutes; it orbits the Sun once every 84 years.

– S.A.