Which force acts outward, perpendicular to the rotational axis, causing cloud flattening?
Answer
Centrifugal force
The contraction driven by gravity is opposed by the forces arising from the increasing spin rate. Specifically, as the rotating mass spins faster due to the conservation of angular momentum, a centrifugal force is generated. This outward force acts perpendicular to the axis around which the cloud is spinning. While gravity pulls material inward along the axis, this opposing centrifugal force pushes the material farthest from the center outward, transforming the roughly spherical cloud into a flattened, pancake-like structure.
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