What makes a heavenly body ( eg: planet) rotate/revolve. Is it simply the force of attraction ie gravity or something else?

Question

owlfred · Answer

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anonymous · Answer

yes...the force of attraction leads to a central force by which the heavenly bodies rotate

anonymous · Answer

rotate and revolve are not the same thing.  rotate is spinning on the axis.  revolve is the path of the object around another body.  

the rotating is initially caused by the mutual attraction of the stuff making up the object.  Then the object keeps spinning because there is nothing acting against it...inertia, conservation of momentum, however you want to think of it.  

the revolving is because of gravity but the revolving can alter the rotating - gravitational tidal forces -- umm force the moon into synchronous rotation to match its revolving around the earth.

anonymous · Answer

The gravitational force of the sun constructs a curvature in spacetime...and the body tries to follow the curved path..which is actually a straight line

a_clan · Answer

The reason for rotation and revolution is explained well above. I just want to add that it is the vacuum in space which lets these bodies keep rotating/revolving.