& # 39; Cataclysmic Collision & # 39; gave the planet its moons, rings and freezing temperature

Four billion years ago, while the solar system was still forming, a piece of rock and ice at least twice as large as the Earth could have crushed on Uranus and knocked out the planet.

This catastrophic collision, report researchers in The Astrophysical Journal may be at the origin of the extremely cold temperature of Uranus, its moons and even its rings.

The inclination of Uranus is extreme for our solar system. Most planets spin right like a ballerina as they travel around the sun. But Uranus rolls like a jumping gymnast. "We used more than 50 different impact scenarios using a high power supercomputer to see if we could recreate the conditions that have shaped the evolution of the planet," concluded the author of l & # 39; study. Researcher Jacob Kegerreis of the University of Durham, UK, said in a university statement: "Our results confirm that the most likely outcome was that the young Uranus was involved in a cataclysmic collision with an object twice bigger than the Earth. "

Although a violent and giant crash is not a new explanation for the bizarre tilt of Uranus, it's hard to study." Kegerreis told Newsweek .

"We were able to use modern supercorders to study collisions like these.Computers and programs have millions of particles in our simulations at high resolution so that we can see many more details. "

See all best photos of the week in these slide shows

An impression of Uranus artist. Getty Images

The simulation of the team was able to explain how Uranus hung on his atmosphere during the violent collision. "For the first time, we were able to simulate the relatively thin atmosphere and see what happens to atmospheres when they experience such a violent event," said Kegerreis. The team found a vicious grazing, rather than a frontal attack, explains the remaining atmosphere.

The collision study allowed researchers to probe why the planet is so cold. Uranus is well beyond freezing, with an estimated upper atmosphere temperature of -357 degrees Fahrenheit.

The researchers believe the collision created a thin layer of debris near the ice sheet of the planet. These debris trap the heat of Uranus' heart as a blanket and prevent it from warming up the atmosphere of the planet

The rings and satellites whirling around Uranus, says Kegerreis , can also be relics of the violent accident. "We can … see the details of the debris thrown into orbit by the collision, where they could form moons and rings of Uranus," he explained.

Read more: This is the first image of a newborn planet

There is little that scientists can learn from these models because our image of Uranus is still relatively blurred. Research on the inside of the planet, for example, could help the team to constrain their model, Kegerreis added.

The research team thinks that their work can help shed light on even less familiar orbs; the exoplanets located beyond our solar system.

"Giant impacts like this are thought to be quite common in the early solar system," Kegerreis said. "So, besides teaching us what happened in the history of our planets, we can learn more about what happens to exoplanets around other stars and better understand how they evolve. . "