![]() |
Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 97: Jan-Feb 1995 |
| ![]() |
In the 30-or-so years that space probes have been visiting the solar system's other planets, much has been learned, but there are now more questions than ever. We now pose four of these -- none of them could even have been asked before the space program.
![]() Not only is the magnetic axis of Uranus tilted grotesquely away from the planet's axis of rotation, but the latter lies almost in Uranus' orbital plane. |
Q2. "Why does Mercury have an iron core twice as massive, relative to its size, as any other rocky planet?" A2. Probably because a giant impact tore off its rocky mantle.
Q3. "How can Neptune sustain 1400-kilometer-per-hour winds -- faster than Jupiter's -- when it is so far from the sun, whose heat powers atmospheric circulation?" A3. ??
Q4. "How could Mars -- now more than 50�C below freezing -- have been warm enough in its early days to have water flowing on its surface?" A4. Possibly due to geothermal heat.
(Kerr, Richard A.; "The Solar System's New Diversity," Science, 265:1360, 1994.)
Reference. A large collection of solar-system anomalies exists in our catalog volume: The Moon and the Planets. To order, visit here.