Mystery Planet: Is a Rogue Giant Orbiting Our Sun?

Time ^ | Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2011 | Michael D. Lemonick

[BenLurkin]

"What we're really saying," he explains, "is that there's suggestive evidence there might be something out there." And if a new planet exists — something Matese is emphatically not claiming at this point — then the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite should already have an image of it stored somewhere in its enormous database.

How suggestive the evidence actually is, though, depends on whom you ask. If you ask Ned Wright, a UCLA astrophysicist and WISE principal investigator, he'll tell you, "It's really kind of flimsy. It's there, but they don't have super data."

So while the latest version of Planet X could certainly exist in theory, it's way too early to start rewriting the textbooks. The evidence isn't even strong enough to have triggered an active search for Tyche; it's only because WISE happens to be surveying the heavens anyway that it could be found at all. If Tyche really is out there, says Wright, "we might be able to tell you something in a year or two."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2049641,00.html#ixzz1EAlUqgvM

[BenLurkin]

Maybe it can be "person of the year"....

[omega4179]

inb4 Abovetopsecret.com, niburu,nemesis and wormwood

[Ev Reeman]

There is the possibility that the Earth might be impacted by a very large meteor sometime in the future. We should start now to prepare for just such an eventuality.

[Le Chien Rouge]

Art Bell would spend hours on a story like this.

[equaviator]

You should not take two and not call a doctor in the morning...

[OldDeckHand]

Two words: Death Star. Just saying.

[wendy1946]

What you’re talking about is entirely like asking gravity to hold two nearly microscopic dust motes together from a mile distance. That’s basically idiotic.

[He Rides A White Horse]

There is the possibility that the Earth might be impacted by a very large meteor sometime in the future. We should start now to prepare for just such an eventuality.

Agreed.

[gov_bean_ counter]

I was thinking “The Mother Ship”. Anybody seen Screwie Louie lately?

[starlifter]

Pinggggggggggggggggggggggggggg

[KoRn]

In before all of the stupid “Uranus”, “AlGore”, and “Islam” jokes!

[ThunderSleeps]

How suggestive the evidence actually is, though, depends on whom you ask. If you ask Ned Wright, a UCLA astrophysicist and WISE principal investigator, he'll tell you, "It's really kind of flimsy. It's there, but they don't have super data."

Hey, just like global warming! Work with thin, flimsy data, or faked/altered data (doesn't matter to the GW "scientists").

I think these guys should borrow a page from the GW playbook and just carry on like the science was "settled" - start planning a mission to Tyche.

[Palmetto Patriot]

Planet Kramden

[Levante]

Maybe it’s a mirror Earth....

See ‘Journey to the Far Side of the Sun’:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhEh1WyKWJ8

[wastedyears]

It's not a planet...

(somebody had to...)

[samtheman]

If so, it’s the 10th planet... not the 9th.

[John W]

And just what should we do to prepare?

[Quix]

THX. will check it out.