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Uranus was struck by a massive object about twice the size of the Earth that caused the tilt of the planet and could explain its freezing temperatures, according to a new study.
Astronomers from the University of Durham, UK, led an international team of experts to study how Uranus was tilted on his side and what consequences a giant impact would have had on him. evolution of the planet.
– Computer simulations of various massive collisions with the ice giant to try to determine how the planet has evolved.
The research confirms a previous study that indicated that the Uranus tilted position was caused by a collision with a massive object – probably a young proto-planet made of rock and ice – during the formation of the solar system there about 4 billion years ago.
The simulations also suggest that the debris from the impactor could form a thin shell near the edge of the planet's ice sheet. trap the heat emanating from the Uranus nucleus. The trapping of this internal heat could partly help explain the extremely cold temperature of Uranus from the planet's outside atmosphere (-216 degrees Celsius, -357 degrees Fahrenheit), according to the researchers.
The results are published in The Astrophysical Journal .
Principal Author Jacob Kegerreis, Ph.D. A researcher from the Institute of Computational Cosmology at the University of Durham said: "Uranus is turning out on its side, with its axis almost perpendicular to that of all the other planets in the solar system, which is almost certainly due to an impact "We ran over 50 different impact scenarios using a high power super computer to see if we We could recreate the conditions that shaped the planet.
"Our results confirm that the most likely outcome was that the young Uranus was involved in a cataclysmic collision with an object twice as big as the mass of the Earth, hitting it on his side and starting the events. it helped to create the planet we see today. "
There was a question mark about how Uranus managed to retain its atmosphere when a violent collision could have sent it into space.
According to the simulations, this can most likely be explained by the impact of the object hitting a grazing hit on the planet.The collision was strong enough to affect the tilt of Uranus, but the planet was able to retain the majority of its atmosphere
The research could also help explain the formation of Uranus' rings and moons, with simulations suggesting that the impact could drop rock and ice into orbit around the planet. This rock and ice could then agglomerate to form the planet's internal satellites and perhaps change the rotation of all the moons already orbiting Uranus
The simulations show that the The impact could have created melted ice and pieces of rock inside. the planet. This could help explain the inclined and off center magnetic field of Uranus.
Uranus is similar to the most common type of exoplanets-planets found outside our solar system-and researchers hope their discoveries will help explain how these planets evolved. better understand their chemical composition.
Learn more:
The study of Uranus suggests that some of his moons are on a collision course
More information:
Astrophysical Journal (2018). DOI: 10.3847 / 1538-4357 / aac725
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