As reported by the Daily Star Saturday (12/18/2021), a study conducted by researchers from the University of Durham, England found that the planet Uranus had been hit by objects made of rock or ice about four billion years ago.
READ ALSO – Scientists Reveal the Presence of Diamond Rain on Neptune and Uranus
In an article published in the Astrophysical Journal, the research team used 50 impact scenarios to make their findings.
It was also found that the debris from the impact acts as a ‘thermal shield’ for Uranus which is why the planet has a cooler outer atmosphere.
“Uranus rotates sideways on its axis pointing almost perpendicular to all the other planets in the solar system. This is almost certainly due to the impact of a ‘giant’ impact, but we have very little knowledge about how this phenomenon occurs and how it affects the planet,” said the lead researcher. Jacob Kegerreis.
Kegerreis added that the findings from the study also suggest that Uranus was involved in a catastrophic collision with an object twice the mass of Earth.
If it wasn’t too big, it must have made Uranus move sideways. This in turn caused it forming a planet in a state similar to the one we see today,” he said
(wbs)
– – .
