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61. Why does Uranus lie on its side?
Since all the planets were born from a disk orbiting the newborn Sun, they must rotate around a vertical axis with equators coinciding with the planes of their orbits.
But there are two exceptions: Venus upside down, which rotates in the opposite direction to its orbital motion, and Uranus, which rotates "lying on its side."
Uranus revolves around the Sun in 84.3 years: it turns its north pole towards the Sun and receives sunlight for 42 years; then the poles reverse and there are 42 years of darkness.
Question: why does Uranus look like a body falling from above? Answer: it may have been overturned by a collision with a large body (the Earth's moon appeared as a result of such a blow).
Problem of the theory: the satellites of Uranus, revolving around its equator, are tilted along with the planet. It is difficult to imagine an impact that would tilt both Uranus and its moons.
In 2009 Gwenel Bue ( Gwenael Bou?) and Jacques Lascar (Jacques Laskar) from the Paris Observatory proposed an alternative theory.
The gravity of the debris from the disk swirling around the newborn Sun could have caused the spinning of the newborn Uranus to wobble or precess like a spinning top.
If the planet once had a giant moon with a mass of 0.1% of the planet's mass, the wobble could eventually become so strong that it would tip the planet on its side.
But where is this giant moon? Bue and Lascar assume that she has been kidnapped! More precisely, these scientists are talking about friction between the protoplanetary disk and Uranus….
…which caused the planet to “migrate” across the disk. If so, then Uranus passed close to another giant planet whose gravity captured its moon.
This theory may seem implausible. However, for a long time it remained a mystery to astronomers that only Uranus is one of the four giant planets. solar system- does not have a large moon.
By the way, Uranus is the closest planet from us, which was not known to the ancients. William Herschel discovered her in his own garden, Bath, England, 1781.
Herschel, a German immigrant, named the planet "Georg's Star" after King George III. The French objected. The Germans suggested the name "Uranus".
Herschel's discovery doubled the known size of the solar system. Uranus, which is 4 times the diameter of the Earth, has an orbit about 20 times farther from the Sun than Earth.
Uranus, despite its position on its side, is rather dull and inexpressive. Most astronomers have called it "the most boring planet".
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1. Why is Uranus "lying on its side"?
The equatorial plane of Uranus is inclined to the plane of its orbit at an angle of almost one hundred degrees. That is, if other planets are spinning like "tops", then Uranus is like a rolling ball. It was as if something had dropped the planet on its side, one and a half dozen times heavier than the Earth! Scientists believe that the reason for this axial tilt of Uranus is a collision with a protoplanet (they are also called "embryo planets") during the formation of the solar system. And this protoplanet should be about the size of the Earth. Where it came from and where it is now remains unclear.
2. Where does the wind come from on Uranus?
The surface of Uranus is covered with a thick veil of clouds, consisting of methane and other combustible gases. They move at different speeds, sometimes reaching 350 km / h. And the maximum recorded wind speed on Uranus is 824 kilometers per hour! Surprisingly, the temperature difference between the polar and equatorial regions of Uranus is negligible and, logically, cannot cause such hurricanes.
3. Why is it colder on the sunny side?
At the moments of the solstices, one of the poles of Uranus remains directed towards the Sun for 42 Earth years! At this time, the other pole is in forty years of darkness - there is a polar night. And only at the equator does the traditionally fast change of day and night occur (a uranium day is approximately 18 hours).
However, the temperature at the equator is warmer than at the pole exposed to the Sun. The reason for this distribution of heat is still a mystery.
4. Mysterious electric light
In addition, using an ultraviolet detector on the sunny side, a strange glow was detected, which scientists called "electroglow". It is similar to the terrestrial aurora, rises to 1500 km. above the dense haze of Uranus. Calculations have shown that the flow of solar energy is not enough for its occurrence. There is a version that the case is in a strong magnetic field, but in fact this mystery has not yet been solved either.
5. Is there life on the coldest planet?
The bowels of Uranus practically do not radiate heat into space, as happens on the other gas giants - Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune. There is an assumption that Uranus does not have enough density for self-heating. Another version: the aforementioned collision with a protoplanet, which tilted the axis of rotation of Uranus, led to the dissipation of the available heat. The third hypothesis is that in the upper layers of the planet there is some kind of layer that does not allow heat to pass from the core to the surface. Because of this, it is difficult to study the temperature of the interior of Uranus. But if it is close to the temperature of other giant planets, then there may be liquid water there, and life can exist on Uranus!
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun in the solar system. In diameter, it is almost four times the size of the Earth. It is very far from the Sun and is relatively poorly lit. Uranus was discovered by the English scientist W. Herschel in 1781. It is not possible to distinguish any details on the surface of Uranus due to the small angular dimensions of the planet in the field of view of the telescope. This complicates his research, including the study of the laws of rotation. Apparently, Uranus (unlike all other planets) rotates around its axis, as if lying on its side. Such an inclination of the equator creates unusual lighting conditions: at the poles in a certain season Sun rays fall almost vertically, and the polar day and polar night cover (alternately) the entire surface of the planet, except narrow lane along the equator. Since Uranus orbits the Sun in 84 years, the polar day at the poles lasts 42 years, then is replaced by a polar night of the same duration. Only in the equatorial belt of Uranus does the Sun regularly rise and set with a periodicity of the planet's uniform axial rotation.
Even in those areas where the Sun is located at the zenith, the temperature on Uranus (more precisely, on the visible surface of the clouds) is about -215 5o C. Under such conditions, some gases freeze. According to spectroscopic observations, hydrogen and a small admixture of methane were found in the composition of the atmosphere of Uranus. In relatively in large numbers there is, by indirect evidence, helium. Like other giant planets, Uranus has this composition, probably almost to the very center. However, the average density of Uranus (1.58 g/cm 53 0) is somewhat greater than the density of Saturn and Jupiter, although the matter in the depths of these giants is much more compressed than on Uranus. Such a density of Uranus can be explained by the assumption of an increased content of helium or the existence of a core of heavy elements in the depths of Uranus.
Planetologists spoke about the probable reason for the unusual position of Uranus. According to experts, in the past, Uranus collided with a protoplanetary body larger than the Earth. Research data scientists presented in the Astrophysical Journal.
The magnetic poles of Uranus, according to astrophysicists, are shifted relative to the geographic ones by 60 degrees. Every Earth day they change places, and the axis of rotation of the planet lies in the plane of the orbit. Specialists from Durham University (Great Britain) have developed a computer model of the solar system in the era of its inception. Scientists have tried to find out what processes influenced the location of the axis of Uranus.
AstropsychologiaScientists have suggested that Uranus collided with a large celestial body. As a result, the gas giant “lay down” on its side, and another space object disappeared into its atmosphere. This process was accompanied by ejections of large fragments of the crust. They subsequently became the basis of the rings of the planet and its satellites.
According to the assumptions of planetologists, the asymmetry point in the bowels of Uranus was created by the remains of a celestial body. This affected the location of the magnetic field.
Uranus: around the sun "Lying on its side"
In the XVIII century. Saturn, known from time immemorial, was considered the boundary of the solar system. It never occurred to anyone that another, unknown planet was hiding behind him. On March 13, 1781, a new planet - Uranus - was discovered by a music teacher from England, William Herschel, who had previously been completely unknown in the astronomical world.
Noticing in his telescope a bright disk moving across the sky, Herschel mistook it for a comet and reported an open celestial body professional astronomers in Greenwich. Quite quickly it became clear that this was a new planet, and the news of the discovery spread throughout Europe. It is curious that the famous German astronomer Johann Bode, compiling a notice about this unique fact, did not even know how the name of the discoverer was spelled, and cited several variants of it taken from various sources. After the discovery of Uranus (the name given to Bode), Herschel became widely known, was elected a member of the Royal Society of London and received the position of court astronomer. Over the next 40 years, he made many remarkable discoveries, in particular, he first observed the two largest satellites of Uranus (1787) and two satellites of Saturn (1789). But his main discovery was still Uranus, which doubled the boundaries of the known solar system.
When they talk about the earth blue planet"is an affectionate exaggeration. Its main palette includes white (clouds, ice), yellow-brown (land) and lead-gray (ocean) colors. The really blue planet turned out to be distant Uranus!
The reason for this lies in the composition of the atmosphere of Uranus and its temperature. In frost (-218 ° C), in the upper layers of the hydrogen-helium atmosphere, it condensed and now a methane haze is constantly present. Methane well absorbs red rays and reflects blue and green. Therefore, Uranus acquired a beautiful aquamarine color.
Typical of Jupiter and Saturn, the white ammonia clouds on Uranus formed in the lower atmosphere and are therefore not visible. Only at low latitudes were a few bright clouds seen. Based on their movement, the wind speed at high altitudes was estimated at 100 m/s. No other structures have been found on the homogeneous disk of Uranus - all atmospheric currents are hidden by a methane haze. In the upper atmosphere of Uranus, there are various "electric lights" similar to terrestrial auroras. They are caused by flows elementary particles(protons, electrons) bombarding the gas shell of the planet. Auroras of this kind are typical of giant planets due to their strong magnetic field.
Uranus has almost the same strong magnetic field as the Earth, only its configuration is unusual: the magnetic pole deviates from the geographic one by almost 60 °. So the compass there won't point to geographic pole. And the most remarkable feature of this planet is that it rotates "lying on its side" (even slightly "upside down") - the inclination of its axis of rotation is 98 °.
Uranus receives almost 400 times less light than our planet. For the sensitive human eye, this corresponds to the illumination on Earth immediately after sunset, at the beginning of twilight. For comparison, we can add that the illumination on Uranus is 1000 times greater than on a clear full moon night on Earth.