Retrograde and prograde motion days. Venus probably began with a fast prograde rotation with a period of several hours much like most of the planets in the Solar System. Venus is close enough to the Sun to experience significant gravitational tidal dissipation, and also has a thick enough atmosphere to create thermally driven atmospheric tides that create a retrograde torque. Venus' present slow retrograde rotation is in equilibrium balance between gravitational tides trying to tidally lock Venus to the Sun and atmospheric tides trying to spin Venus in a retrograde direction. In addition to maintaining this present day equilibrium, tides are also sufficient to
Solar eclipses on Uranus Solar eclipses on Uranus Solar eclipses on Uranus occur when any of the natural satellites of Uranus passes in front of the Sun as seen from Uranus. Eclipses can occur only near a solar ring plane-crossing of Uranus (equinox), occurring approximately every 42 years, with the last crossing being in 2007/2008. For bodies that appear smaller in angular diameter than the Sun, the proper term would be a transit and bodies that are larger than the apparent size of the Sun, the proper term would be an occultation. Twelve satellites of Uranus—Cressida, Desdemona, Juliet, Portia, Rosalind, Belinda, Puck, Miranda, Ariel,