Has something massive broken on Uranus?

You may be familiar with one of the complexities of Uranus: She turns on her side, and her moons orbit on this same plane in rotation. New evidence reinforces the fact that Uranus was broken up during a giant collision, which resulted in its lateral orientation on its orbital plane and perhaps explaining some other mysteries of the planet.

A new article performs a series of simulations on Uranus early in its history, taking note of what an early impact might have had on its rate of rotation, its atmosphere, and its internal structure. The impact could have left a clear signature still visible inside the planet that we see today.

Uranus is really strange. Not only does it rotate on an axis at an angle of 98 degrees to its orbital plane, but unlike other giant planets, it does not seem to emit more heat than it receives from it. of the Sun. Its magnetic field, too, seems deformed compared to that of the Earth. An impact could perhaps help explain some of these strange traits.

Scientists have simulated giant impacts in Uranus since the early 1990s, according to the new article published in the Astrophysical Journal . This time, the researchers built a new simulation with the most recent and best available data on the composition of the planet. This allowed them to model how a giant impactor, perhaps one to three times the mass of the Earth, would have deposited "material and energy inside Uranus" and how much there would be leftover debris, from which moons could form. The study provides new insights into what could have happened billions of years ago, with materials that could even trap some of that heat inside, "Leigh said. Fletcher, researcher at the Royal Society of Leicester. said Gizmodo.

But this is only a simulation, and as we always say: all models are imperfect, but some are interesting. Models can not tell us exactly what happened; it will take a lot more data to fully understand the history of Uranus. "Of course, what we really need is an ambitious robotic mission to explore Uranus and its diverse satellite system," Fletcher said. "The gravitational, atmospheric and magnetic mapping of the fields, following what we did with Jupiter with Juno and with Saturn with Cassini, could provide new clues to better constrain these models, unveiling the secrets of a giant interior of ice time. "

Uranus is really a mystery. Will humans finally take the task of exploring it?

[ApJ]