In the Solar System diagrams, the planets look like well-arranged tops. Uranus disturbs this disposition: its axis is so inclined that it seems to turn lying down. Its equator forms an angle close to the right angle with the plane of its orbit.
This orientation has a spectacular consequence. During a Uranian year, which lasts about eighty-four Earth years, a pole can remain facing the Sun for a long part of the journey. The other then experiences a darkness that is counted in years. NASA describes a polar winter of about twenty-one years.
How did the planet take this position? An old collision is part of the explanation. It is necessary to distinguish the measured inclination of this scenario on its origin. The strangeness is already in the calendar: on this planet, waiting for the return of a season could occupy a large part of a human life.
What we know
Incline is observed; the old collision remains a proposed explanation.
To go to the source
References consulted on September 21, 2026. Linked pages may be in another language.
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