10-12-2003, 03:26 AM
Bismillah
As salam alaikum
I think that Insha'Allah I might be able to explain this phenomenon.
Picture three people. One is in the center of a large room. The second is standing ten feet away from the first. The third person is standing 30 feet from the first. The first person stands still while the other two run around the first. Because the second person is closer to the first, the cirlce he runs in is smaller and it takes a shorter amount of time to complete a circle than the third person. The third person must run in a larger circle and so it takes him longer to complete a circle.
If the two runners begin to run from the same point of the cirlce (say the righthand side of the person in the center), they initially are going to stay next to one another. Soon, the second runner pulls ahead of the third because he has less distance to travel. Eventually, the second runner is going to pass the third runner Or lap him.
At first the second runner was moving farther away from the third runner, eventually he got across from the third runner and was moving closer to the runner. Now the second runner is moving closer to the third runner. When the second passes the third, he is again moving away from the third runner.
Now imagine the second person is Earth and the third is Mars while the center person is the sun. These times when the runners are getting closer then farther or farther then closer is like the changing of directions of the planet Mars in our sky. Due to the extreme distances though, these occurrances do not occur as often as they do in our runner scenario.
This is why the sun did not rise in the west on Mars. In order for that to happen, Mars has to spin in the opposite direction in which it is now spinning. One way is for it to completely stop and change directions and the other is for the planet to flip its poles, ie flip upside down. Some scientists theorize that this may eventually happen to the Earth. The theory I've heard about is that dams holding tremdeous amounts of water have started the planet to wobble on its axis, like when a ball or balloon has a weight attached to one end. This wobbling could cause the planet to flip.
Allah knows best. Jazak Allah Khair.
As salam alaikum.