How do the Planets and Sun get their initial rotation?
Why do Venus and Mercury rotate so slowly compared to other planets?
Why does Venus rotate in a different direction to Mercury, Earth and Mars?
Answer
Anglular momentum is conserved, so any tiny initial rotation that a the original ball of gas had becomes faster as the gas collapses down into a star and disk of planets.
Planets near the sun rotate slowly for the same reason that the moon always faces the same side to the Earth - tidal braking
Venus probably received a hit from a some lump of rock / proto-planet some time early in it's life which changed it's rotation. A similar event split the moon off from Earth
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