Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Geology (USA) made a unique discovery. In their opinion, Uranus is the only planet in the solar system that rotates "lying on its side."
According to the press service of the institute, the discovery was made after studying the images of Uranus transmitted to the earth by the Voyager 2 research satellite. The ship flew past the seventh planet of the solar system in January 1986. Then, for more than 30 years, scientists tried to unravel the mystery of Uranus from the photographs.
The researchers were puzzled by the fact that the position of the poles on Uranus changes every 18 hours, and the magnetic poles are displaced 60 degrees from the axis of the planet (an imaginary line connecting the poles).
American researchers believe that this mystery has finally been solved. Uranus rotates as if "lying on its side."
"Uranus is a geometric nightmare" - The magnetosphere of this planet "opens" and "closes" to the solar wind for several hours. No other planet in the solar system has such properties, "- commented on the results of the study one of his co-authors Carol Party.
Dmitry Grigoriev
