Uranus' tilt causes what NASA considers to be the most extreme seasons in the solar system. The most likely explanation for the planet's unusual orientation (about 90 degrees sideways compared to the other planets) is that it underwent some sort of titanic collision in the ancient past. First, the planet rotates on its side, appearing to roll around the sun like a ball, according to NASA's Uranus guide (opens in new tab). Uranus usually appears in classroom solar system models as a featureless blue ball, but this gas giant of the outer solar system is pretty weird on closer inspection. (Image credit: Lawrence Sromovsky, University of Wisconsin-Madison/W.W. This composite image of the two hemispheres of Uranus was obtained with Keck Telescope adaptive optics and the north pole is at 4 o'clock. Uranus appears to roll around the sun like a ball, rotating on its side. Jupiter is about 5.2 AU from the sun, and Neptune is 30.07 AU from the sun or approximately 30 times as far from the star as Earth 3. Scientists use an approximation of the Earth-to-sun distance, also known as one astronomical unit or AU, to compare distances within the solar system.
Eight enormous planets could fit between here and there, and yet according to NOAA (opens in new tab), the distance from Earth to the sun is more than 390 times the distance from the Earth to the moon. The moon is the farthest from Earth that we've ever sent humans, and it's both mind-bogglingly distant and incredibly close depending on how you think about it. Our little moon creates vast tides on Earth already - the gravitational perturbation from our new proximity to Jupiter alone would keep any of us from admiring the view.) (Of course, in all practicality we'd have other problems to worry about, too. They'd just barely squeeze in between us and our closest companion in space, blocking out the sky with their rings and gas giant bulk as they did so. But imagine lining them all up, pole to pole. The distance between the Earth and the moon varies, as does the diameter of each of the planets - they're wider at their equators, so Saturn or Jupiter or both would have to be tilted sideways for this to work, according to news site Slate.
Continued abuse of our services will cause your IP address to be blocked indefinitely.Did you know that all of the planets in the solar system could fit between Earth and our moon? (Image credit: Jeremy Horner via Getty images) (opens in new tab)ĭepending on how carefully you do the calculations and how you arrange them, all of the planets in the solar system could fit in between Earth and its moon. Please fill out the CAPTCHA below and then click the button to indicate that you agree to these terms. If you wish to be unblocked, you must agree that you will take immediate steps to rectify this issue.
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