In 2005 , the discovery of the nanus planet Eris by Caltech astronomer Mike Brown and his colleagues ultimately led to Pluto being demote as the ninth planet of the Solar System a twelvemonth later . Brown took to his status as the Isle of Man who relegated Pluto with aplomb ; his hold on Twitter is , rather appropriately , “ plutokiller . ”
But new inquiry , publish today inThe Astronomical Journalby Brown and his colleague Konstantin Batygin , is sure to make a stir . He is proposing the universe of a real ninth planet of the Solar System , dub “ Planet Nine ” and showily nicknamed “ Phattie , ” that would be almost the size of it of Neptune .
The major planet has not been observed ; rather , the astronomer have put together a numerical model that infer its existence . “ We have a gravitative signature tune of a giant planet in the outer Solar System , ” Batygin toldNature . But interestingly , they say that some of the most powerful telescope on Earth at the second may be capable of spotting it – and it may already be hiding in existing images .
grounds for Planet Nine hail from the observed motion of objects in the Kuiper Belt , a huge neighborhood of comets beyond the orbit of Pluto . According to the paper , it suggests there is a planet ten time the mass of Earth on a hugely elliptic orbit around the Sun , fill out an orbit every 10,000 to 20,000 years and never fix close than 200 times the Earth - Sun distance .
A goodish degree of agnosticism is sure demand , though . After all , the infamous Planet X and the mythical Nibiru have been circling in uranology and conspiracy Mexican valium for long time . Planet Nine has not even been see yet ; it ’s too former to say it exists for definite . But Brown himself is positive .
“ o.k. , OK , I am now willing to admit : I DO believe that the solar system has nine planets , ” he wrote onTwitter .
Shown is the predicted oval orbit for Planet Nine , and other orbits for known removed objects in the Solar System . Caltech / R. Hurt ( IPAC )
In their paper , Brown and Batygin say there is only a 0.007 percentage probability that the ascertained bunch of Kuiper Belt Objects ( KBOs ) is “ due to chance , ” suggesting another origin . “ We happen that the observed orbital alliance can be maintained by a distant eccentric planet with mass [ great than 10 Earths ] , ” they write . The satellite could also excuse the egg-shaped arena of nanus satellite like Sedna .
One potential explanation for the planet ’s being , according to the author , is that it was a giant major planet core that was ejected during the early Solar System , something that may be common in planetary systems .
The discovery of a ninth planet in the Solar System would be immense , and that ’s an understatement . Astronomers have antecedently predicted the existence ofhundreds of dwarf planetsbeyond the celestial orbit of Pluto in the Kuiper Belt , but so far no square theory live for a big satellite like Planet Nine .
This paper is certain to be pored over , scrutinized , and perhaps even discredited , so do n’t require to have to learn a new mnemonic for the planets any time before long . But be train ; the man who pour down Pluto might just have give a newfangled lease of life to the hypothesized existence of a 9th man in our Solar System .
“ For the first time in over 150 years , there is square evidence that the Solar System ’s planetary census is incomplete , ” allege Batygin in astatement .
