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I have heard that when our solar system formed that all planets except Venus were revolving around the sun in the same direction because of the normal rotation of their axes. Venus was rotating and revolving backwards or retrograde. There was a collision with Venus that caused it to rotate and revolve normally.

But why would a planet revolve backwards around a star relative to all the other planets in the stellar system?

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  • $\begingroup$ It's a bit unclear if you're asking about retrograde orbit (i.e. it completes a year clockwise around the Sun) or retrograde rotation of the planet along its own axis w.r.t. its orbit (completes a day clockwise)? A link to where you heard what you allude to in your question could help, please edit the question with additional details explaining what precisely are you asking. On top of the question that this one is suggested as a possible duplicate of, also see Why do (most of) the planets rotate counterclockwise, i.e. the same way the Sun does? $\endgroup$
    – TildalWave
    Commented Oct 13, 2014 at 1:37

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You've confused its rotation and revolution. Venus revolves around the Sun in the same way as all the other planets, but its rotation is in the opposite direction of theirs. It has retrograde rotation, but not revolution. I think this solves your paradox.

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  • $\begingroup$ But when the solar system formed it was revolving backwards. $\endgroup$
    – Caters
    Commented Oct 8, 2014 at 19:04
  • $\begingroup$ and how can something rotate backwards but revolve normally? $\endgroup$
    – Caters
    Commented Oct 8, 2014 at 21:04
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    $\begingroup$ No, it was revolving the same way as the other planets, and the same way it does today. $\endgroup$
    – HDE 226868 ♦
    Commented Oct 8, 2014 at 22:35

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