Posted on 12/21/2018 10:37:30 AM PST by ETL
Edited on 12/21/2018 11:00:23 AM PST by Jim Robinson. [history]
The giant impact from an Earth-size rock that knocked Uranus sideways may have also helped create the tilted planet's moons, a new study finds.
The poles along which Earth spins are mostly pointed the same way as the poles of the sun and nearly all the other planets of the solar system.
However, Uranus is an oddball in that its axis of spin is tilted by a whopping 98 degrees (relative to the plane of the solar system), meaning it essentially spins on its side.
No other planet in the solar system is tilted as much Jupiter is tilted by about 3 degrees, for example, and Earth by about 23 degrees.
Now, researchers in Japan suggest a giant cosmic impact may not only have knocked Uranus on its side, but also created most of the planet's moons.
[Photos of Uranus, a Tilted Planet]
https://www.space.com/39123-crash-that-tilted-uranus-made-moons.html
“Get it? Uranus?”
That kid in ET.
Thanks Army Air Corps for the ping to the other topic. :^)
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BTW, you-RAY-nus is the correct pronounciation, it's right out of the Greek original. AFAIK, no one pulled the "YER-en-nus" crap until Carl Sagan. Apparently he also invented a "correct" pronounciation of Halley's Comet, which is generally pronounced "HAY lee's" in the US. NO WHERE is it pronounced "HAL ee" apart from Sagan boosters and wannabees (and the entertainment industry nitwits on The Big Bang Theory); in England, Edward Halley's name is correctly pronounced "HALL ee" making it "Hall ee's Comet" there.
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