Research Simulate Collision to Explain Uranus’ Odd Qualities

Uranus was forever changed after it collided with a massive object during the formation of the solar system some 4 billion years ago, a new study says.

According to the study published this week in the Astrophysical Journal, the Ice Giant has "weird" attributes because it collided with an object twice the size of Earth billions of years ago.

The planet is unique for a number of reasons, including its extreme tilt.

"All of the planets in the solar system are spinning more or less in the same way … yet Uranus is completely on its side," Jacob Kegerreis, the study's lead author and a researcher at Durham University's Institute for Computational Cosmology in the United Kingdom, told Space.com.

It's also unique because of its "very, very strange" magnetic field and because it's much colder than it should be, Kegerreis noted.

(MORE: Birth of a Planet Spotted for First Time by Scientists)

The researchers tested and confirmed an older study, which said a massive object slammed into the planet, by using a high-powered supercomputer to simulate massive collisions.

“We ran more than 50 different impact scenarios using a high-powered supercomputer to see if we could recreate the conditions that shaped the planet’s evolution," Kegerreis said in a press release.

“Our findings confirm that the most likely outcome was that the young Uranus was involved in a cataclysmic collision with an object twice the mass of Earth, if not larger, knocking it on to its side and setting in process the events that helped create the planet we see today,” he added.

The team's findings also provide insight into how the planet garnered its rings and numerous moons. The simulations suggest the impact with what was most likely a young proto-planet made of rock and ice could have "jettisoned rock and ice into orbit around the planet."