The "catastrophic collision" that left the planet Uranus twisted and frozen

A mbadive shock in his youth marked him forever.

Uranus has disconcerting characteristics that distinguish it from other planets in the solar system.

It is inclined and its external atmosphere is extremely cold, with temperatures of 216 degrees. Zero

How are these peculiarities explained?

An international team of scientists led by the University of Durham in England ensures that a gigantic collision marked the evolution of the planet.

"Uranus rotates to the side, with its axis directed almost perpendicular to the rest of the planets of the Solar System," explains Jacob Kegerreis, a researcher at the Department of Computational Cosmology at the University of Durham and lead author of the study

"This was caused, almost certainly, by a gigantic impact ."

"Catastrophic collision"

Kegerreis and his colleagues did dozens of computer simulations, the first in high resolution of possible mbadive collisions with the frozen giant.

The results "confirm that the most likely outcome was that young Uranus was affected by a catastrophic collision with an object that had twice the mbad of Earth or even more, and put it aside and triggered the events that helped create the planet we see today, "Kegerreis said.

The study, published in the journal The Astrophy sical Journal confirms an earlier investigation that the tilt of Uranus was caused by a collision with a mbadive object during from the formation of the solar system 4 billion years ago

Frost

] The simulations on Uranus made by scientists from the University of Durham also offer an explanation extreme temperatures of the planet.

Oberon is one of the moons of Uranus, which has 27 known moons. . All these moons have names inspired by the works of William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope. / NASA Astrogeology Team (USGS) Voyager Project

The remains of the collision would have formed a thin shell near the edge of the ice cap, capturing the heat emanating from the nucleus of Uranus . This internal heat capture may explain at least part of the reason temperatures of 216 degrees below zero

The simulations also help to explain how the rings and moons of Uranus formed, ice and rocks thrown after. the collision that ended in orbit around the planet.

Uranus is similar to the most common type of exoplanets and Kegerreis and his colleagues hope their discoveries help explain the evolution and composition of these outer planets. to the solar system

Seven things you might not know about Uranus

"If Earth was a big apple, Uranus would be a basketball," NASA says on its website . The image was captured by Voyager 2, the only probe that flew near the planet. / NASA / JPL-Caltech

1. The equatorial line of Uranus is at an almost right angle with its orbit .
2. This is the first planet discovered with a telescope, March 13 1781 by William Herschel
3. It is 19 times farther from the Sun than the Earth.
4. One day on Uranus lasts 17 terrestrial hours and one year on Uranus is equivalent to 84 years on Earth.
5. Its atmosphere contains hydrogen, helium and methane . The methane in the upper atmosphere of Uranus absorbs the red light of the Sun but reflects the blue light. This explains why Uranus appears blue.
6. Its diameter is four times larger than the terrestrial .
7. Uranus is a giant ice . Much of its mbad is a dense fluid of water, methane and ammonia on a rocky center.

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