--- title: Why Uranus Orbits Sideways description: A longstanding mystery about the planet's tilt gets a new explanation. canonical: https://time.com/6220649/why-uranus-has-a-tilted-orbit/ author: Jeffrey Kluger article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-10-07T21:33:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:51:32.617Z article:section: Science og:title: A Longstanding Mystery Involving Uranus' Tilted Orbit Gets a New Explanation og:description: A new computer model explains why the planet orbits sideways og:url: https://time.com/6220649/why-uranus-has-a-tilted-orbit/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdf6a9285e6dff820/698a364b457a520602d66e45/planet-uranus-sideways-tilt-orbit-science.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2120 og:image:height: 1193 og:image:alt: Artwork of Uranus og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Longstanding Mystery Involving Uranus' Tilted Orbit Gets a New Explanation twitter:description: A new computer model explains why the planet orbits sideways twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdf6a9285e6dff820/698a364b457a520602d66e45/planet-uranus-sideways-tilt-orbit-science.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Longstanding Mystery Involving Uranus' Tilted Orbit Gets a New Explanation > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ## Video: Scientists Solve the Mystery Behind the Oumuamua 'Alien Spacecraft' Comet [Watch (HLS stream): Scientists Solve the Mystery Behind the Oumuamua 'Alien Spacecraft' Comet](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/J9Bv3CCr.m3u8) (1:34)  _Published 2023-03-23. In the years since Oumuamua’s discovery, no one has yet explained how, in fact, the object defied traditional cometary physics and hit the gas as it was leaving our solar system. Now, at last, a new paper in Nature might have the answer—and it has everything to do with molecular hydrogen._  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Oct 7, 2022 9:33 PM UTC  An impression of the green ice giant planet, Uranus. It is unusual in that it has a very pale, almost featureless atmosphere, and an axial tilt close to 100 degrees. An impression of the green ice giant planet, Uranus. It is unusual in that it has a very pale, almost featureless atmosphere, and an axial tilt close to 100 degrees. Getty Images/Science Photo Libra—Science Photo Library  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Oct 7, 2022 9:33 PM UTC Uranus is one of the least explored planets in the solar system, with just a single barnstorming visit by Voyager 2 in 1986\. If ever there was a world that deserves more attention than that, however, Uranus is it, if only because it is such a cosmic odd-ball. --- ### More from TIME --- Easily Uranus’ strangest feature is the fact that it orbits on its side, lying at a 98-degree angle, with its North and South poles facing effectively East and West. Astronomers have always attributed the planet’s peculiar posture to a long-ago collision with a large passing body. But as [Space.com reports](https://www.space.com/uranus-tilt-from-lost-moon-not-impact), a new paper accepted for publication in the journal _A_ _stronomy and Astrophysics,_ and [posted to the preprint site arXiv.org,](https://arxiv.org/abs/2209.10590) offers a new and different theory. A lingering problem with the giant impact explanation for Uranus’ angle is that the entire early solar system was a shooting gallery of whizzing planets and moons which should have knocked other planets similarly cockeyed. And yet, Uranus alone orbits sideways. According to the new paper, it wasn’t an impact that tipped Uranus at all. Rather, it argues, a massive moon fell into orbit around the planet and gravitationally destabilized it. Using computer models, the researchers calculate that over time, the moon would have tilted Uranus to an angle of 80 degrees. At this point, the planet-moon pair would have entered a chaotic gravitational dance, pulling Uranus even further sideways and ending with the moon crashing into the planet, vanishing from history and freezing Uranus at its current 98-degree angle. The theory is a sound one, at least as far as computer models can prove, and it could get a further test sometime after 2030\. That’s when [China plans to launch its Tianwen-4 spacecraft](https://www.space.com/china-probes-jupiter-uranus-same-launch), which will make twin flybys first of Jupiter and then of Uranus, at last giving the sideways planet another up-close look. _This story originally appeared in TIME Space, our weekly newsletter covering all things space._ [_You can sign up here._](https://time.com/newsletters/) ## Transcript The comment known as omoo amoa Hawaiian, for a visitor, from afar sailed, through our solar system in 2017 and right away made news, its small size barely longer than a football field and strange elongated shape, made it an odd Cosmic spectacle, but oh, move it. Did something unusual to its sped up as it was leaving the solar system for more than ordinary, it's do when they're flown away by the Sun's gravity. That led to some wild speculation that only one move, it was actually an alien spacecraft Fuzzy's in our corner of a space. Now, a new paper and nature explains the acceleration and alas. No, aliens are involved. Instead, the researchers concluded the Water Ice in side. The comment was cold enough when it was in deep space that it entered, what's known as an amorphous state. Swiss cheese like pockets in it. Gaseous, hydrogen filled those Pockets when the comet entered our solar system, the sun warm the ice enough to cause it to take its usual, crystalline State squeezing the pockets and causing the hydrogen to exit the comet in powerful plumes, which led to the mysterious acceleration. That explanation is not as exciting as the Extra-Terrestrial one but it has the benefit of being good. Solid science. 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