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More than 800 minor objects have been detected beyond Neptune in a discovery that could help identify the hypothetical planet in our solar system, known as Planet Nine.
The researchers reported the results of a six-year survey to map the outer solar system, called the Dark Energy Survey (DES), which uses a telescope from the Inter-American Observatory at Cerro Tololo, high in the Chilean Andes.
Their search yielded 815 transneptunian (TNO) objects, with 461 objects first reported in a new pre-printed research paper.
The TNOs are so called because they are further out than any minor or dwarf planet in the solar system with an orbit beyond Neptune.
Further study of their motions and orbit could potentially reveal the gravitational influence of the official ninth planet after Neptune, Planet Nine.
It wasn’t until last month that another team of experts plotted the likely location of Planet Nine, about 46.5 billion kilometers from the Sun.
Planet Nine, a planet with 10 times the mass of Earth lying beyond the dwarf planet Pluto, is the holy grail among many astronomers. In the photo, artist’s impression of the supposed planet
This new research was led by Dr. Pedro Bernardinelli of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania.
The main objective of DES is to measure the rate of acceleration of cosmic expansion, based on data from hundreds of millions of galaxies.
But this article reports on cosmic phenomena much closer to home – the NWT – based on six years of data captured between 2013 and 2019.
“An important detail is that when you take a picture of the sky, you not only see what you are looking for, but you also see other things that are in the same region of the sky that may be closer to or further away from. your target, ”Dr. Bernardinelli told Universe Today.
“So we can see anything from planes and asteroids to the NWT, as well as distant stars and galaxies. So we can use the data to find other things – in my case, the NWT. ‘
The NWT is believed to be made up of mixtures of rock, amorphous carbon, and volatile ices such as water and methane.
They are believed to be remnants of the formation of the solar system.
Their current orbital distribution is believed to be the result of the giant planets – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune – migrating to their current orbits.
If it exists, Planet Nine is under both Neptune and Pluto, which was demoted from its planet classification to a dwarf planet in 2006.
During their migration, they likely threw these items after Neptune. Dr Bernardinelli said astronomers can study the NWT to try to trace such events.
“By collecting data on hundreds of these objects, then, we can ask all kinds of questions, such as’ How fast did Neptune migrate? “(Our data shows a preference for slower migration) or” is there a ninth planet hidden on the outskirts of the solar system? “, did he declare.
“Our data doesn’t show the expected signal, but that doesn’t mean we’re ruling out the idea of Planet Nine.”
Planet Nine was first theorized by experts at Caltech in 2014 when they noticed the NWT behaving in unusual ways.
The orbits of those furthest from these TNOs – those 250 times farther from the sun than from Earth – all point in the same direction.
Astronomers still claim that this can be explained by the gravitational pull of a ninth planet in our solar system that orbits 20 times farther from our sun than Neptune.
However, to this day, astronomers have only circumstantial evidence for the existence of planet nine.
An alternative hypothesis is that there is not a giant planet, but rather the imbalance is due to the combined gravitational influence of much smaller objects.
This was put forward in May 2020 by researchers who suggested that the elusive Planet Nine may be nothing more than a mirage.
They proposed that it was “collective gravity,” a sprawling disc of icy debris made up of millions of tiny bodies.
If it exists, Planet Nine is within the confines of our own solar system, beyond the Kuiper Belt, the donut-shaped ring of frozen objects that extends just beyond Neptune’s orbit. .
Planet Nine could have formed in the Inner Solar System when it was first born and was then expelled through interactions with Jupiter, another team of researchers reported in December of last year.
PLANET NINE: OBJECT ORBITS BEYOND NEPTUNE SUGGEST THERE’S SOMETHING BIG
Astronomers believe the orbits of a number of bodies in the far reaches of the solar system have been disrupted by the pull of an as yet unidentified planet.
First proposed by a CalTech group in the United States, this alien world was theorized to explain the distorted paths observed in distant frozen bodies.
In order to accommodate the data they have, this alien world – commonly known as Planet Nine – would need to be about four times the size of Earth and ten times its mass.
Researchers say that a body of this size and mass would explain the clustered paths of a number of icy minor planets beyond Neptune.
First proposed by a CalTech group in the United States, this alien world was theorized to explain the distorted paths observed in distant frozen bodies.
Its huge orbit would mean that it would take between 10,000 and 20,000 years to make a single pass around the sun.
The theoretical planet Nine is based on the gravitational pull it exerts on these bodies, and astronomers are confident that it will be found in the years to come.
Those hoping for theoretical Earth-sized planets proposed by astrologers or science fiction writers – which are “hiding behind the sun” and tied to doomsday scenarios – may need to keep looking.
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