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

A massive 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.

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 turns to the side, with its pointed axis almost perpendicular to the rest of the planets of the solar system," says 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, for a gigantic impact . "

" Catastrophic collision "

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

The collision between Uranus and a massive object in a high-resolution simulation with more than 10 million particles Jacob Kegerreis / University of Durham

The results "confirm that the most likely result was that the young Uranus was affected by a catastrophic collision with an object that had twice the mass of the Earth or even He was put on his side and set off the events that helped to create the planet we let's see today, "said Kegerreis.

The study, published in the journal The Astrophysical Journal confirms a previous investigation according to which the inclination of Uranus was caused by a collision with a massive object during the formation of the solar system 4,000 million years ago .

Frost

The simulations on Uranus made by scientists at the University of Durham also provide an explanation for the 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. The NASA Astrogeology Team (USGS) The Voyager Project

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

The simulations also help explain how the rings and moons of Uranus formed, ice and rocks launched after the Uranus is similar to the most common type of exoplanets and Kegerreis and his colleagues hope that their discoveries help explain the evolution and composition of these planets apart of the planet. Solar System

Seven things you may not know about Uranus

"If the 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 angle close to the right angle with its orbit .
2. C & # 39; is the first planet that was discovered with a telescope on 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 equals 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 mass is a dense fluid of water, methane and ammonia on a rocky center.