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The impactor that knocked Uranus on its side long ago isn't quite so mysterious anymore.

Uranus is tipped over more than 90 degrees relative to the plane of the solar system, and so are the gaseous planet's ring system and the orbits of its 27 known moons. Astronomers think this unique configuration is evidence of a violent collision Uranus suffered shortly after it was born, which also apparently supercharged the planet's rotation. (Uranus spins around its axis once every 17 hours, significantly faster than Earth does.)

Details of that collision have remained elusive, however, because simulations have struggled to generate the Uranus system that we see today. For example, the mass of the post-impact debris disk tends to be quite big in these models, much bigger than it should be, given the total mass of Uranus' moons today.

Until now, that is. A team of researchers has had success with a novel modeling strategy devised to investigate the formation of moons around frigid planets, a new study reports.

[livescience.com]

kresica 7 Apr 8
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Well, i don't know about Uranus, but my anus is tilted exactly the way it's supposed to be...

Sorry, couldn't resist.

0

Theoretically.... have you seen any of the Electric Universe and the thunderbolts project?

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