Two researchers believe that there's a ninth planet in our solar system.
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| [Planet 9] |
Our solar system presently has eight planets, according to official counts. This is due in part to astronomer Michael E. Brown of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California who was responsible for Pluto's planet classification being removed in 2006. Brown, on the other hand, has long thought that the solar system must still contain a ninth planet. "All the folks who are furious with me because Pluto is no longer a planet may be glad that there is still a planet to be discovered out there," Brown stated in 2016, following the publication of a scientific study that put it this way: It has to be the solar system's ninth, previously undiscovered planet.
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The discussion about a hypothetical ninth planet and the quest for "Planet 9" has continued since then. Brown and his study collaborator Konstantin Batygin discovered dwarf planets outside of Neptune's orbit. The motions of these "trans-Neptunian objects" (TNO) could not be explained merely by the gravity of the solar system's known celestial bodies.
The two researchers' hypothesis is that the movement of the dwarf planets is influenced by a previously undiscovered celestial body. According to estimates at the time, this celestial body with the moniker "Planet 9" has ten times the mass of the earth, is twenty times further from the sun than Neptune, and takes 10,000 to 20,000 years to orbit the sun.
Brown and Batygin have now released another "Planet 9" research article on the arXiv servers. Brown describes the release on his website, saying, "We now know where to look." Numerous simulations with varied settings for "Planet 9" were conducted, among other things. According to Brown, almost every one of these factors had "significant impacts on the outer solar system" in the simulation. That's fantastic news because it means that observations of the motions of celestial bodies in the outer solar system may be made concerning the unknown planet.
Planet 9 has never been observed, yet two experts believe it exists.
Batygin and Brown also provide a sky map depicting the most likely orbit of the undiscovered planet, as well as where it is most likely today. "Planet 9" would circle the sun at a distance of 300 to 450 AU if it weighed approximately 6.2 Earth masses. The average distance between the sun and the earth is around 150 million kilometers, which is measured in astronomical units. If “Planet 9” were only 2.2 Earth masses in mass, it could approach the sun at a distance of 85 AU, bringing it far closer to the sun.
But where do you look for the fabled planet 9? On Twitter, Brown says, "Unfortunately, the statistics only tell us the orbital route, not WHERE the planet is on its approach." “That is, in fact, a big pity.” However, because the planet moves more slowly at its furthest point from the sun, it is more likely that it is there. Brown, who self-deprecatingly refers to himself on Twitter as "Plutokiller," says, "You should look there."
It's possible that "Planet 9" has already been discovered.
If “Planet 9” does exist, its brightness and size will determine how fast it may be discovered. In their analysis, the researchers state, "The brightest variation might have already been taken from the different sky surveys." “To find the darkest variation, one would have to use eight to ten meter telescopes to look for it specifically.” Since 2017, citizen scientists have been searching for “Planet 9” through a Citizen Science project.
Brown, dubbed "Plutokiller," does not believe in the notion that the celestial body influencing the outer solar system's gravity is a primordial black hole. Brown says on Twitter that he thinks the hypothesis is "silly." His new research, however, does not disprove the black hole idea. “We can only measure mass,” says the narrator. Brown claims that it may be a six-earth black hole (but it isn't). According to Brown's own words, one of the images Brown and Batygin released in their study is a "treasure map for Planet 9." “It's time to hunt, my fellow pirates!” he says on his blog.
Source : Frankfurter Rundschau