Which planet is rotating sideways

The basic idea was to model the colliding planets with millions of particles in the computer, each representing a lump of planetary material. We give the simulation the equations that describe how physics like gravity and material pressure work, so it can calculate how the particles evolve with time as they crash into each other.

This way we can study even the fantastically complicated and messy results of a giant impact. Another benefit of using computer simulations is that we have full control. We can test a wide variety of different impact scenarios and explore the range of possible outcomes. Our simulations see above show that a body at least twice as massive as the Earth could readily create the strange spin Uranus has today by slamming into and merging with a young planet.

This could inhibit the mixing of material inside Uranus, trapping the heat from its formation deep inside. Thermal evolution is very complicated, but it is at least clear how a giant impact can reshape a planet both inside and out.

The research is also exciting from a computational perspective. Much like the size of a telescope, the number of particles in a simulation limits what we can resolve and study.

However, simply trying to use more particles to enable new discoveries is a serious computational challenge, meaning it takes a long time even on a powerful computer. Our latest simulations use over m particles, about , times more than most other studies today use. As well as making for some stunning pictures and animations of how the giant impact happened, this opens up all sorts of new science questions we can now begin to tackle.

These are basically lots of normal computers linked up together. So, running a big simulation quickly relies on dividing up the calculations between all parts of the supercomputer. While most of the satellites orbiting other planets take their names from Greek or Roman mythology, Uranus' moons are unique in being named for characters from the works of William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope. All of Uranus' inner moons appear to be roughly half water ice and half rock.

The composition of the outer moons remains unknown, but they are likely captured asteroids. Uranus has two sets of rings. The inner system of nine rings consists mostly of narrow, dark grey rings. There are two outer rings: the innermost one is reddish like dusty rings elsewhere in the solar system, and the outer ring is blue like Saturn's E ring.

Some of the larger rings are surrounded by belts of fine dust. Uranus took shape when the rest of the solar system formed about 4. Like its neighbor Neptune, Uranus likely formed closer to the Sun and moved to the outer solar system about 4 billion years ago, where it is the seventh planet from the Sun. Uranus is one of two ice giants in the outer solar system the other is Neptune. Near the core, it heats up to 9, degrees Fahrenheit 4, degrees Celsius. Uranus is slightly larger in diameter than its neighbor Neptune, yet smaller in mass.

It is the second least dense planet; Saturn is the least dense of all. Uranus gets its blue-green color from methane gas in the atmosphere. Sunlight passes through the atmosphere and is reflected back out by Uranus' cloud tops.

Methane gas absorbs the red portion of the light, resulting in a blue-green color. The planet is mostly swirling fluids. The extreme pressures and temperatures would destroy a metal spacecraft.

Uranus' atmosphere is mostly hydrogen and helium, with a small amount of methane and traces of water and ammonia. The methane gives Uranus its signature blue color. While Voyager 2 saw only a few discrete clouds, a Great Dark Spot, and a small dark spot during its flyby in — more recent observations reveal that Uranus exhibits dynamic clouds as it approaches equinox, including rapidly changing bright features. Uranus' planetary atmosphere, with a minimum temperature of 49K Wind speeds can reach up to miles per hour kilometers per hour on Uranus.

But closer to the poles, winds shift to a prograde direction, flowing with Uranus' rotation. Uranus has an unusual, irregularly shaped magnetosphere. Magnetic fields are typically in alignment with a planet's rotation, but Uranus' magnetic field is tipped over: the magnetic axis is tilted nearly 60 degrees from the planet's axis of rotation, and is also offset from the center of the planet by one-third of the planet's radius.

Lets start with Venus. There are a few possibilities that we can take into account to explain why Venus rotates backwards. Venus is initially rotating counterclockwise like the other planets and it still does. In other words, it spins in the same direction it always has, just upside down, so that looking at it from the other planets makes the spin look backward. As I said before, there are a few explanations for this. Such strong tides could have caused the flip to happen.

Another explanation comes from the cratering evidence on each planet. Soon after the planets were formed, there still were many large and small objects or maybe we can classify them as mini planets that orbited the Sun. Well if Venus was rotating upside down then.. Most planetary axes are perpendicular to the orbital plane. This extreme tilt leads to the radical seasons that the planet experiences and makes the planet have unusual days at the poles. At the equator, Uranus experiences normal days and nights.

But because it rotates on its side, at any given time one pole or the other is pointed more or less towards the Sun. This results in one pole experiencing 42 Earth years of day followed by 42 years of night.

So how could this have happened? Same as with Venus, Uranus also had counterclockwise rotation until a gigantic impact changed everything. The explanation for this is that in its formation history, Uranus collided with an Earth-sized object which lead to the change of its rotation. And for the moon itself, it was ejected from the system when they encountered other massive planets. Audio post-production by Richard Drumm. Bandwidth donated by libsyn. You may reproduce and distribute this audio for non-commercial purposes.