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To: IslandJeff
I think we should work on this four planets idea. Its time has come!!! ;')
So is the plane of an axial rotation due to solar magnetism or is magnetism the result of the axis? My guess would be the latter, because ions going 30-odd AU into the frozen void shouldn't have caused dramatic rotational tilting unless, as is possible in my pet barstool paradigmatic cosmology tonight, that Sol is merely where the Solar System settled, rather than being proximal to its origin.
Uranus is a puzzle from a uniformitarian perspective, although a number of ideas have been put forward. Since the Uranian moon system appears to be pretty conventional (unlike that of Neptune) it seems likely that the tipped axis of the planet was caused by something after the moons entered orbit (regardless of their origin). If it was caused by an impact, then it must have been one doozy of an impact.

It's also possible that the axis was tipped by some impact or other encounter (perhaps the thick gaseous atmosphere which covers a presumed rocky core arrived from a direction perpendicular to the ecliptic) before the moons were there. Gosh, I guess I'm no help at all.

My guess is, the magnetic field of the planet doesn't pertain to the axis of rotation. Let's see...
Uranus: Magnetic Field And Magnetosphere
by C. T. Russell and J. G. Luhmann

Quicktime movie (other source)
If the intrinsic magnetic field of Uranus had been nearly aligned with the rotational axis, as the planets previously visited were, the polar axis of the magnetosphere, or the polar cusp as it is called, would have been aligned with the solar wind flow as Voyager flew by the planet. Ironically, the magnetic axis of the intrinsic magnetic field of Uranus was far from spin axis-aligned, so that the solar wind blew nearly perpendicular to the magnetic axis, as it does at Mercury, Earth, Jupiter and Saturn. Thus, while Uranus has an unusual intrinsic magnetic field, the resulting magnetosphere was found to be very Earth-like.

99 posted on 08/24/2006 10:15:33 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (updated my FR profile on Thursday, August 10, 2006. https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: SunkenCiv
It's also possible that the axis was tipped by some impact or other encounter (perhaps the thick gaseous atmosphere which covers a presumed rocky core arrived from a direction perpendicular to the ecliptic) before the moons were there. Gosh, I guess I'm no help at all.

You are selling yourself short, while opening up a new can of worms. If Uranus, indeed, has a terrestrial core, the limits of theoretical science at least suggest a core composed of heavier, possibly-metallic (and well beyond carbon 16) elements. Now given the mass of the gas giant (even if it's mostly methane or whatever), that gaseous mass, given Newtonian mechanics, is creating God-knows-how-much-pressure on what could likely be a nickel-iron-lead(?) alloy virtually impossible to create at "STP".

Let's keep up the Four and No More. I like this "outside the box" stuff. Uranus, though you obviously weren't a fan of "2010", could still be a major teacher confined to scientific house arrest.
100 posted on 08/24/2006 10:36:01 PM PDT by IslandJeff (Artificial Paradise)
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To: SunkenCiv

Sorry to bug you again, but I am completely unfamiliar with the Uranian/Jovian satellites (outside of Jupiter and Saturn). They should hold at least a few conspiracy-theory Zapruder Film-type clues. I noticed the article you cited only stated a "rocky" interior, surrounded by water ice and ammonia. No surprises there, but what is "rocky"? What holds a Jovian giant together?


101 posted on 08/24/2006 10:46:34 PM PDT by IslandJeff (Artificial Paradise)
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