Posted on 08/06/2016 8:37:29 AM PDT by BenLurkin
It’s impossible to do an article about Uranus without opening up the back door to a spit storm of potty humour....
Anyway, perhaps one of the strangest aspects of Uranus is its tilt....
The Earth is tilted 23.5 degrees away from the Sun’s equator. Mars is 25 degrees, and even Mercury is 2.1 degrees tilted....
Uranus is 97.8 degrees...
...[A]stronomers define the angle as greater than 90 degrees when you take its direction of rotation into account. When you describe it as turning in the same direction as the rest of the planets in the Solar System, then you have to measure it this way.
What could have done that to Uranus, how could it have happened?
...
The early planets smashed into each other, pushed one another into new orbits. Some planets could have been spun out of the Solar System entirely, while others might have been driven into the Sun. Our own Moon was likely formed when a Mars-sized object crashed into the Earth. Other moons might have been captured from three body interactions between worlds...
The Solar System that you see today contains the survivors. Everything that wasn’t delivered a death blow.
... This means that something smashed into Uranus while it was still surrounded by the disk of gas and dust that its moons formed from.
... Astronomers think it was more complicated than that, however. If it was a single, massive collision, models suggest the planet would just flip over entirely, and end up rotating backwards from the other planets in the Solar System.
It’s more likely that another collision or even a series of collisions put the brakes on Uranus’ end over end roll, putting it into its current configuration.
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
Agreed lol.
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