One set of simulations suggests Uranus may have been tipped over by at least two giant impacts rather than one: when researchers modelled a single abrupt collision acting on an existing moon-forming disk, the resulting moons orbited backward. Multiple impacts produced a prograde satellite system aligned with Uranus’s extraordinarily tilted equator—but newer models show that a single impact followed by moon formation remains possible.

A 2012 pre-existing-disk model required an earlier tilt to keep Uranus's moons prograde, while later impact-generated-disk models restore a viable one-collision path. The post One set of simulations suggests Uranus may have been tipped over by at least two giant impacts rather than one: when researchers modelled a single abrupt collision acting on an existing moon-forming disk, the resulting moons orbited backward. Multiple impacts produced a prograde satellite system aligned with Uranus’s extraordinarily tilted equator—but newer models show that a single impact followed by moon formation remains possible. appeared first on Space Daily .