Transcripts of Space Place Musings Narrator: Welcome to Space
Place Musings, where an expert answers questions from our Space
Place museum partners across the nation. I'm Diane Fisher of the
New Millennium Program. Our expert is Dr. Marc Rayman, a
scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Marc, we have heard
from the North Museum Planetarium in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
They have several questions about Earth's rotation period, such
as why is Earth rotating? And has it always rotated at the same
rate? Rayman: Ah, yes. Earth's graceful 24-hour rotation rate is
one of the traits that makes our world so friendly to life,
allowing most parts of our planet to stay a nice, comfortable
temperature as they are bathed in sunlight during the day and
darkness at night. And while the rotation may seem slow, Earth
is so big that it's turning at more than 1000 miles per hour at
the equator. Narrator: Do all the planets rotate at about this
rate? Rayman: Not at all. Each planet in the solar system has
its own unique rotati