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- The solar system is starting to be very different from what we thought.
- A third object beyond Pluto has just been announced.
- The newly discovered dwarf, nicknamed "The Goblin", never approaches more than 65 astronomical units, or AU, from the sun.
Beyond the limits of our known solar system, orbits a recently discovered object, 2015 TG387. His nickname? The goblin. Its orbit is extremely elongated and never approaches the Sun at about 65 astronomical units, or AU. (Each UA is the distance between the Earth and the Sun.) Pluto, for comparison, is about 34 AU. In the farthest, the 2015 TG387 draws around 2,300 UA from the sun. TG387 was discovered by Carnegie Institute for Science & # 39; s Scott Sheppard, University of North Arizona Chad Trujilloand the University of Hawaii David Tholen, and revealed this month. It can provide another clue that there is a Planet X too far for us to see.
Breadcrumbs of Planet X
2015 The TG387 has the third farthest parhelion – the point closest to its orbit to the Sun – among the distant objects we have begun to detect. Farthest? This honor goes to another object that Sheppard and Trujillo found, VP113 2012, which only approaches 80 AU from the sun. Sedna takes second place, with a parhelion of 76 AU.
According to Tholen, speaking to Science Carnegie"We think that there could be thousands of small bodies like the 2015 TG387 on the periphery of the solar system, but their distance makes their search very difficult." In addition to their farthest points, he adds, "Right now, we would only detect the 2015 TG387 when it gets closer to its closest approach to the Sun. For about 99 percent of his 40,000 years of orbit, he would be too weak to see. "
(Carnegie Institute for Science)
Images taken at three o'clock on October 13, 2015 at Mauna Kea's
2015 TG387 was first seen in October 2015 at the 8-meter Subaru Japanese Telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The follow-up observations that allowed the scientists to map its orbit lasted about three years. 2015, the TG387 will probably be small, even for a dwarf planet: it is only 300 kilometers wide.
Computer simulations capable of explaining the orbits of the three bodies raise the suspicion of a large planet, that is to say the planet X. After all, the three objects are too far apart to be swayed significantly by the gravitational pull of the planets we know. Sheppard says it this way:
These distant objects are like breadcrumbs that lead us to Planet X. The more we find, the more we will be able to understand the outer solar system and the possible planet that we believe is shaping their orbits – a discovery that would redefine our knowledge of L & # 39, evolution of the solar system.
(Carnegie Institute for Science)
2015 TG387 is very far away.
About Planet X
The invisible planet, called by many "Planet X", should be about twice the size of the Earth. It was proposed for the first time in 2016 by Konstantin Batygin and Michael Brown from Caltech who called him "Planet 9. "(Take that, Pluto.)
In the simulations performed by Trujillo and the University of Oklahoma Nathan Kaib, they experimented with different possible orbits of planet X and found that most of them were compatible not only with the 2015 TG387 orbit, but also with those of 2015, VP113 and Sedna. His presence would also explain why the three have similar orbits. As Trujillo says, "This result is really interesting, it is that the X planet seems to affect TG387 2015 in the same way as all the other extremely distant objects of the solar system." These simulations do not prove that it There is another gigantic planet in our solar system, but is another proof that something big could be out there. "
(Carnegie Institute for Science)
The orbits of 2015 TG387, 2012 VP113 and Sedna suggest the attraction of another object.
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