A Massive Object Devastated Uranus A Long Time Ago And It Never Fully Recovered

 

Our Solar System is a pretty calm place, all things considered, but that wasn’t always the case. In the phase when the planets were still forming, collisions between various large bodies were common, and they eventually helped shape the system that we witness today. New research shows that Uranus, a chilly, hostile planet with a number of peculiar features, was the victim of a devastating impact during those early years, and it might explain some of the planet’s strange personality.

Uranus moves much differently than the other planets in our Solar System, rotating on its side in comparison to the rest of the planets in our neighborhood. Scientists have often pondered just how this happened, but simulations performed by astronomers at Durham University’s Institute for Computational Cosmology might have finally produced the answer.

 

 “We ran more than 50 different impact situations using a high-powered super computer to see if we could restore the conditions that shaped the planet’s evolution,” lead author Jacob Kegerreis describes. “Our conclusions confirm that the most likely conclusion was that the young Uranus was involved in a cataclysmic collision with an object twice the mass of Earth, if not larger, knocking it on to its side and setting in process the actions that helped create the planet we see today.”

 

Something totally huge crashed into Uranus when it was still young, causing it to tilt dramatically and spin on its side. The impact would have to have been a glancing blow, rather than a head-on collision, but the contact was enough to change the direction the planet’s axis is pointing.