Formation of celestial systems[edit]

When a galaxy or a planetary system forms, its material takes the shape of a disk. Most of the
material orbits and rotates in one direction. This uniformity of motion is due to the collapse of a gas
cloud.[1] The nature of the collapse is explained by the principle called conservation of angular
momentum. In 2010 the discovery of several hot Jupiters with backward orbits called into question
the theories about the formation of planetary systems.[2] This can be explained by noting that stars
and their planets do not form in isolation but in star clusters that contain molecular clouds. When
a protoplanetary disk collides with or steals material from a cloud this can result in retrograde motion
of a disk and the resulting planets.[3][4]

Orbital parameters[edit]
Inclination[edit]
A celestial object's inclination indicates whether the object's orbit is prograde or retrograde. The
inclination of a celestial object is the angle between its orbital plane and another reference frame
such as the equatorial plane of the object's primary. In the Solar System, inclination of the planets is
measured from the ecliptic plane, which is the plane of Earth's orbit around the Sun.[5] The inclination
of moons is measured from the equator of the planet they orbit. An object with an inclination
between 0 and 90 degrees is orbiting or revolving in the same direction as the primary is rotating. An
object with an inclination of exactly 90 degrees has a perpendicular orbit that is neither prograde nor
retrograde. An object with an inclination between 90 degrees and 180 degrees is in a retrograde
orbit.

Axial tilt[edit]
A celestial object's axial tilt indicates whether the object's rotation is prograde or retrograde. Axial tilt
is the angle between an object's rotation axis and a line perpendicular to its orbital plane passing
through the object's centre. An object with an axial tilt up to 90 degrees is rotating in the same
direction as its primary. An object with an axial tilt of exactly 90 degrees has a perpendicular rotation
that is neither prograde nor retrograde. An object with an axial tilt between 90 degrees and 180
degrees is rotating in the opposite direction to its orbital direction.

Planets[edit]
All eight planets in the Solar System orbit the Sun in the direction that the Sun is rotating, which
is counterclockwise when viewed from above the Sun's north pole. Six of the planets also rotate
about their axis in this same direction. The exceptions—the planets with retrograde rotation—
are Venus and Uranus. Venus's axial tilt is 177 degrees, which means it is spinning almost exactly in
the opposite direction to its orbit. Uranus has an axial tilt of 97.77 degrees, so its axis of rotation is
approximately parallel with the plane of the Solar System. The reason for Uranus's unusual axial tilt
is not known with certainty, but the usual speculation is that during the formation of the Solar
System, an Earth-sized protoplanet collided with Uranus, causing the skewed orientation.[6]
It is unlikely that Venus was formed with its present slow retrograde rotation, which takes 243 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 account for evolution of Venus's rotation from a
primordial fast prograde direction to its present-day slow retrograde rotation.[7] In the past various
other alternative hypotheses have been proposed to explain Venus' retrograde rotation, such as
collisions or it having originally formed that way.[a] Mercury is closer to the Sun than Venus but
Mercury is not tidally locked because it has entered a 3:2 spin–orbit resonance due to
the eccentricity of its orbit. Mercury's prograde rotation is slow enough that due to its eccentricity, its
angular orbital velocity exceeds its angular rotational velocity near perihelion, causing the motion of
the sun in Mercury's sky to temporarily reverse.[8] The rotations of Earth and Mars are also affected
by tidal forces with the Sun, but they have not reached an equilibrium state like Mercury and Venus
because they are further out from the Sun where tidal forces are weaker. The gas giants of the solar
system are too massive and too far from the Sun for tidal forces to slow down their rotations.[7]

Dwarf planets[edit]
All known dwarf planets and dwarf planet candidates have prograde orbits around the Sun, but some
have retrograde rotation. Pluto has retrograde rotation; its axial tilt is approximately 120
degrees.[9] Pluto and its moon Charon are both tidally locked to each other. It is suspected that the
Plutonian satellite system was created by a massive collision.[10][11]

Earth's atmosphere[edit]
Retrograde motion, or retrogression, within the Earth's atmosphere is seen in weather systems that
move from east to west through the Westerlies or from west to east through the trade
wind easterlies.

Natural satellites and rings[edit]

The orange moon is in a retrograde orbit.

If formed in the gravity-field of a planet as the planet is forming, a moon will orbit the planet in the
same direction as the planet is rotating and is a regular moon. If an object is formed elsewhere and
later captured into orbit by a planet's gravity, it can be captured into a retrograde or prograde orbit
depending on whether it first approaches the side of the planet that is rotating towards or away from
it. This is an irregular moon.[12]
In the Solar System, many of the asteroid-sized moons have retrograde orbits, whereas all the large
moons except Triton (the largest of Neptune's moons) have prograde orbits.[13] The particles in
Saturn's Phoebe ring are thought to have a retrograde orbit because they originate from the irregular
moon Phoebe.
All retrograde satellites experience tidal deceleration to some degree. The only satellite in the Solar
System for which this effect is non-negligible is Neptune's moon Triton. All the other retrograde
satellites are on distant orbits and tidal forces between them and the planet are negligible.
Within the Hill sphere, the region of stability for retrograde orbits at a large distance from the primary
is larger than that for prograde orbits. This has been suggested as an explanation for the
preponderance of retrograde moons around Jupiter. Because Saturn has a more even mix of
retrograde/prograde moons, however, the underlying causes appear to be more complex.[14]
With the exception of Hyperion all the known regular planetary natural satellites in the Solar System
are tidally locked to their host planet, so they have zero rotation relative to their host planet, but have
the same type of rotation relative to the Sun as their host planet, because they have prograde orbits
around their host planet. That is to say, they all have prograde rotation relative to the Sun except
those of Uranus.
If there is a collision, material could be ejected in any direction and coalesce into either prograde or
retrograde moons, which may be the case for the moons of dwarf planet Haumea, although
Haumea's rotation direction is not known.[15]

Small solar system bodies[edit]

Asteroids[edit]
Asteroids usually have a prograde orbit around the Sun. Only a few dozen asteroids in retrograde
orbits are known.
Some asteroids with retrograde orbits may be burnt-out comets,[16] but some may acquire their
retrograde orbit due to gravitational interactions with Jupiter.[17]
Due to their small size and their large distance from Earth it is difficult to telescopically analyse the
rotation of most asteroids. As of 2012, data is available for less than 200 asteroids and the different
methods of determining the orientation of poles often result in large discrepancies.[18] The asteroid
spin vector catalog at Poznan Observatory[19] avoids use of the phrases "retrograde rotation" or
"prograde rotation" as it depends which reference plane is meant and asteroid coordinates are
usually given with respect to the ecliptic plane rather than the asteroid's orbital plane.[20]
Asteroids with satellites, also known as binary asteroids, make up about 15% of all asteroids less
than 10 km in diameter in the main belt and near-Earth population and most are thought to be
formed by the YORP effect causing an asteroid to spin so fast that it breaks up.[21] As of 2012, and
where the rotation is known, all satellites of asteroids orbit the asteroid in the same direction as the
asteroid is rotating.[22]
Most known objects that are in orbital resonance are orbiting in the same direction as the objects
they are in resonance with, however a few retrograde asteroids have been found in resonance
with Jupiter and Saturn.[23]

Comets[edit]
Comets from the Oort cloud are much more likely than asteroids to be retrograde.[16] Halley's
Comet has a retrograde orbit around the Sun.[24]

Kuiper belt[edit]
Most Kuiper belt objects have prograde orbits around the Sun. The first Kuiper belt object discovered
to have a retrograde orbit is 2008 KV42.[25]

Meteoroids[edit]
Meteoroids in a retrograde orbit around the Sun hit the Earth with a faster relative speed than
prograde meteoroids and tend to burn up in the atmosphere and are more likely to hit the side of the
Earth facing away from the Sun (i.e. at night) whereas the prograde meteoroids have slower closing
speeds and more often land as meteorites and tend to hit the sun-facing side of the Earth. Most
meteoroids are prograde.[26]

The Sun[edit]
The Sun's motion about the centre of mass of the Solar System is complicated by perturbations from
the planets. Every few hundred years this motion switches between prograde and retrograde.[27]

Exoplanets[edit]
Stars and planetary systems tend to be born in star clusters rather than forming in
isolation. Protoplanetary disks can collide with or steal material from molecular clouds within the
cluster and this can lead to disks and their resulting planets having inclined or retrograde orbits
around their stars.[3][4] Retrograde motion may also result from gravitational interactions with other
celestial bodies in the same system (See Kozai mechanism) or a near-collision with another
planet,[1] or it may be that the star itself flipped over early in their system's formation due to
interactions between the star's magnetic field and the planet-forming disk.[28][29]
The accretion disk of the protostar IRAS 16293-2422 has parts rotating in opposite directions. This is
the first known example of a counterrotating accretion disk. If this system forms planets, the inner
planets will likely orbit in the opposite direction to the outer planets.[30]
WASP-17b was the first exoplanet that was discovered to be orbiting its star opposite to the direction
the star is rotating.[31] A second such planet was announced just a day later: HAT-P-7b.[32]
In one study more than half of all the known hot Jupiters had orbits that were misaligned with the
rotation axis of their parent stars, with six having backwards orbits.[2]
The last few giant impacts during planetary formation tend to be the main determiner of a terrestrial
planet's rotation rate. During the giant impact stage, the thickness of a protoplanetary disk is far
larger than the size of planetary embryos so collisions are equally likely to come from any direction
in three dimensions. This results in the axial tilt of accreted planets ranging from 0 to 180 degrees
with any direction as likely as any other with both prograde and retrograde spins equally probable.
Therefore, prograde spin with small axial tilt, common for the solar system's terrestrial planets except
for Venus, is not common for terrestrial planets in general.[33]

Stars[edit]
The pattern of stars appears fixed in the sky, but that is only because they are so far away that their
motion isn't visible to the naked eye; actually, they are orbiting the centre of the galaxy. Stars with a
retrograde orbit are more likely to be found in the galactic halo than in the galactic disk. The Milky
Way's outer halo has many globular clusters with a retrograde orbit[34] and with a retrograde or zero
rotation.[35] The structure of the halo is topic of an ongoing debate. Several studies claimed to find a
halo consisting of two distinct components.[36][37][38] These studies find a "dual" halo, with an inner,
more metal-rich, prograde component (i.e. stars orbit the galaxy on average with the disk rotation),
and a metal-poor, outer, retrograde (rotating against the disc) component. However, these findings
have been challenged by other studies,[39][40] arguing against such a duality. These studies
demonstrate that the observational data can be explained without a duality, when employing an
improved statistical analysis and accounting for measurement uncertainties.
The nearby Kapteyn's Star is thought to have ended up with its high-velocity retrograde orbit around
the galaxy as a result of being ripped from a dwarf galaxy that merged with the Milky Way.[41]