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Title: Uranus takes a pounding more frequently than thought
Source:
dvice.com
URL Source: http://dvice.com/archives/2011/10/we-now-know-why.php
Published: Oct 9, 2011
Author: staff
Post Date: 2011-10-09 21:15:40 by Ferret Mike
Keywords: None
Views: 8124
Comments: 11
Uranus isn't just gassy, it's also tilted completely sideways, such that instead of rotating like a spinning top, it rolls around the plane of the solar system more like a giant ball. Now astronomers think they know how this happened, and it means that Uranus has been pounded really, really hard not once, but twice.
Uranus' axial tilt of 98 degrees means that it's got one pole pointed almost directly at the sun, and one pole pointed out into space. As the planet revolves around the sun, these poles slowly switch places, meaning that if you lived there, you'd get 42 years of sunlight followed by 42 years of darkness, with a short time in between where things would seem almost normal.
Needless to say, this sort of behavior is a bit strange for Uranus, although nobody's quite been able to determine how it happened. New simulations from astronomers at the Observatory of Côte d'Azur in Nice, France may have just figured it out, and the answer seems to be that Uranus has suffered from not one but two giant impacts.
The only reliable way to change the tilt of one planet is to smash it with another planet of comparable size. While planets running into other planets isn't something that happens very often nowadays, back in the tempestuous youth of the solar system, it was relatively common: a planet the size of Mars hitting Earth four and a half billion years ago probably blasted off enough stuff to form the moon, for example. But with Uranus, one collision big enough to knock the entire planet sideways would also have screwed up Uranus' system of moons, which isn't the case.
Replacing that one big impact with two slightly smaller impacts, though, works out perfectly. Each impact would have involved a planet the size of the Earth punching into Uranus several billion years ago, early enough that Uranus' moons could still have made it into their current orbits. Interestingly, an impact of about the same size is also thought to have happened to Neptune, which is making astronomers wonder whether the model they have for the formation of the outer planets is quite right. It's always been assumed that way out around Uranus and Neptune, things were pretty chill, with the gas giants slowly forming by sweeping up gas and dust in their orbits. But if these latest impact simulations are correct, it implies that the outer solar system was a much more violent place than we ever thought.
Europlanet, via Scientific American (1 image)
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#1. To: dwarfs followers (#0) (Edited)
And here I thought I'd be getting a laugh at one of dwarfs teabagging cronies commenting on his spandex/lycra clad tri athletic bathhouse adventures.
Death to everybody who does not get outta my way. (decided to retire the beatdowns on old worthless retread posters that are bozoed)
#2. To: e_type_jag (#1)
Mars is the planet named after the Roman god of war. So, why does Uranus twitch when you think about war?
I realize this title sounds like one of heppy quanzo's inventions, but it's about an interesting new way to look at the gas giant planets; not about anyone's rectal orifice.
#3. To: e_type_jag (#1)
And here I thought I'd be getting a laugh at one of dwarfs teabagging cronies commenting on his spandex/lycra clad tri athletic bathhouse adventures.
Aw sh*t - you crack me up!
Look Mildred!!! NIGGERS!!!! war posted on 2011-10-03 14:29:18 ET
#4. To: e_type_jag (#1)
LMAO @ "dwarfs followers".
Look Mildred!!! NIGGERS!!!! war posted on 2011-10-03 14:29:18 ET
#5. To: Ferret Mike (#0)
Uranus takes a pounding more frequently than thought
I thought that post was going to be about yukon...
Honest Socialism
#6. To: Ferret Mike, *Science and technology*, *Space News* (#0)
ping
"It is impossible to talk reason with those who can only parrot Party Slogans." sneakypete Sept 2011
Stay Hungry...Stay Foolish --Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs,life-long Dim,and major Barry Soetoro supporter.
#7. To: e_type_jag (#1)
And here I thought I'd be getting a laugh at one of dwarfs teabagging cronies commenting on his spandex/lycra clad tri athletic bathhouse adventures.
I have to admit that was my first thought,also.
I was really relived to find out this wasn't true. That kind of stuff is acceptable on the political threads,but IMHO threads like this should stay free of personal and political attacks.
"It is impossible to talk reason with those who can only parrot Party Slogans." sneakypete Sept 2011
Stay Hungry...Stay Foolish --Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs,life-long Dim,and major Barry Soetoro supporter.
#8. To: jwpegler (#5)
I thought that post was going to be about yukon...
LOL! Seems like everybody had the same thought/fear.
"It is impossible to talk reason with those who can only parrot Party Slogans." sneakypete Sept 2011
Stay Hungry...Stay Foolish --Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs,life-long Dim,and major Barry Soetoro supporter.
#9. To: Liberator (#4)
Look Mildred!!! NIGGERS!!!! war posted on 2011-10-03 14:29:18 ET
Sheesh......I pegged that assclown and fredjerks as a typical plantation tards long before "disappearing" him/them but this looks like even a new low he has sunk to as desperation sinks in.
All this desperation from a once "reagan republican"....who would have thunk it??
Death to everybody who does not get outta my way. (decided to retire the beatdowns on old worthless retread posters that are bozoed)
#10. To: e_type_jag (#9)
(Look Mildred!!! NIGGERS!!!! war posted on 2011-10-03 14:29:18 ET)Sheesh......I pegged that assclown and fredjerks as a typical plantation tards long before "disappearing" him/them but this looks like even a new low he has sunk to as desperation sinks in.
All this desperation from a once "reagan republican"....who would have thunk it??
WHAT point is he making with that comment?? Never mind... And chyeah - a "Reagan Republican"?!? Lol...
Jag, I hope you know your place when pasty-azzed war and Freddy run their neo-plantation.
/s
Look Mildred!!! NIGGERS!!!! war posted on 2011-10-03 14:29:18 ET
#11. To: Liberator (#10)
Jag, I hope you know your place when pasty-azzed war and Freddy run their neo-plantation.
I'll be just as always.
Standing over them with my boot firmly pinning their squawing necks to the ground.
Rubbish like this is easy to control/peg. Neither of them are insidious enough to be of much threat - I'm thinking it has to do with the white "supremacacist" inbreeding thing they all engage in to keep the pure gene pool intact.
"All in the familiy" and all that.....
Death to everybody who does not get outta my way. (decided to retire the beatdowns on old worthless retread posters that are bozoed)
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