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From: michaelm@3COMVAX.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: "At the moment Uranus's south pole points..."
Message-ID: <8602271712.AA23782@oliveb.ICO>
Date: Thu, 27-Feb-86 12:12:12 EST
Article-I.D.: oliveb.8602271712.AA23782
Posted: Thu Feb 27 12:12:12 1986
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I believe that north and south poles are defined on the basis of the
direction of rotation.  That pole is the north pole (regardless of
the orientation in which it points) which is the axle of rotation
in the same direction as Earth.  Thus Venus's north pole is defined
to point nearly due south with respect to Earth because its rotation
takes place in the opposite direction.  

Cheers!

Michael McNeil	..!ucbvax!hplabs!oliveb!3comvax!michaelm

	*Salvati*.  Now what shall we do, Simplicio, with the fixed
	stars?  Do we want to sprinkle them through the immense abyss
	of the universe, at various distances from any predetermined
	point, or place them on a spherical surface extending around
	a center of their own so that each of them will be at the
	same distance from that center?  
	*Simplicio*.  I had rather take a middle course, and assign
	them an orb described around a definite center and included
	between two spherical surfaces...  
		Galileo Galilei, 1638, *Dialogues
		Concerning Two New Sciences*