Bruce Sterling Woodcock ) wrote:

: "Mike Rhino" wrote in message
: news : "Eric Chomko" wrote in message
: ...
: How about a case where one of the poles points in the direction of the
: orbital plane? IOW, at one point in the orbit the north pole points at
: the
: sun and on the other side of the orbit the south pole points toward the
: sun. Unlike the Earth's or Mars' ~25 deg. axis tilt this other is more
: on
: the order of a 90 deg. axis tilt.
:
: Uranus comes pretty close with an axis tilt of 97.86 degrees.
:
: http://www.solarviews.com/eng/uranus.htm

: And Pluto is about 120 degrees, and Venus about 180 degrees.

Isn't that like saying Venus rotates 3 degrees retrograde the same thing?
And Pluto is 57.5 degrees retrograde? The latter is new to me as I had
not known that we knew the axis tilt of Pluto. Heck, I remember when they
discovered Charon its moon, and when the rotation period of 6.3 days was
discovered but the axis tilt and retrograde at that is new to me.

Also, the negative rotation period makes me think of time going backwards.

Anyway, thanks for the info.

Eric

P.S. If and when we send a probe to Pluto should we name it Tombaugh or
Lowell?

: Bruce