Did Something Massive Smash Into Uranus?

[underpants]

https://gizmodo.com/did-something-massive-smash-into-uranus-1827315511

A new paper performs a series of simulations on Uranus early in its history, taking note of what an early impact may have done to its rotation rate, atmosphere, and internal structure. The impact could have left a clear signature still visible inside the planet we see today.

Uranus really is strange. Not only does it rotate on an axis that sits at a 98-degree angle to its orbital plane, but, unlike the other giant planets, it doesn’t appear to release more heat than it receives from the Sun. Its magnetic field, too, appears warped compared to the Earth’s. An impact could perhaps help explain some of these strange traits.

Scientists have been simulating giant impacts into Uranus since the early 1990s, according to the new paper published in the Astrophysical Journal. This time around, researchers built a new simulation with the newest and best available data of the planet’s composition. This allowed them to model how a giant impactor, perhaps one to three times the mass of Earth, would have deposited “material and energy inside Uranus” and how much debris would be left over, from which moons could form.

“This study provides some great new insights into what might have happened all those billions of years ago, with material left over from the impact possibly even serving to trap some of that heat inside,” Leigh Fletcher, Royal Society Research Fellow at the University of Leicester who was not involved in the study told Gizmodo.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. I think I'd have noticed.

Sorry, I revert to 4th grade whenever that particular planet is discussed.

[Sanity Claws]

2. Hmmmm

Isn’t it more likely that something massive came out of Uranus?

[magicarpet]

6. Ummmm... maybe check....

..... check the bloomers... I mean under pants ?

[YessirAtsaFact]

3. Great question for Trump

After 6 months in prison

[Glorfindel]

4. There are also rings around Uranus, but they are dark and faint

What a strange, mysterious planet! Thanks for posting this, underpants.

[Zambero]

5. It doesn't release more heat than it receives from the sun...

So then, it's not really a matter of Uranus being situated in a location "where the sun don't shine"???

[dalton99a]

7. Uranus really is strange.

It's still a puzzle for proctologists

[rusty fender]

8. LOL!

I thought this was going to be a meme about Trumpass

[Aristus]

9. People who wish to avoid the 'your anus' pronunciation,

usually settle on 'urine us'. That doesn't sound any better...