Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

There's a ninth planet in our solar system - we just can't see it yet, study says
l a times ^ | 01/20/2016 | amina khan

Posted on 01/20/2016 1:43:51 PM PST by BenLurkin

Scientists have been wondering whether a "Planet X" exists in the dim regions far beyond the known planets, but it has remained largely speculative....

That started to change in March 2014, when a pair of astronomers announced that they’d discovered a brand-new dwarf planet, 2012 VP113, beyond the well-populated edge of the Kuiper belt, whose main mass stretches from Neptune’s orbit around 30 astronomical units (or 30 times the Earth-Sun distance) out to 50 astronomical units.

It wasn’t the only such object: Sedna, a 600-mile-wide rock discovered in 2003, also boasted this far-out orbit, and it seemed to be making its closest approach to the sun at a similar angle as 2012 VP113. This could be highly coincidental - or it could mean that a giant planet was lurking out there in the dark, influencing both their movements.

...

The researchers studied the paths of a half-dozen far-out Kuiper belt objects. They found that certain angles in their orbits were aligned in an inexplicable way, and their perihelia – the point at which each object came closest to the sun - were all clustered very closely together, rather than being randomly distributed...

There’s no way that these crossing paths should remain stable, he thought – unless there was something else out there that was massive enough to shepherd these objects along, keeping them in line.

The scientists calculated that such a massive planet would have an orbit whose closest approach was on the other side of the sun from the perihelia of the objects it was shepherding. This giant planet is so far out, however, that the closest it gets to the sun is a whopping 200 astronomical units.

...

Planet Nine would probably be somewhere around ten Earth masses, making it a tiny gas giant, known as a mini-Neptune.

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy
KEYWORDS: 2012vp113; 20thousandyears; caltech; christophmordasini; danielwhitmire; deusexmachina; estherlinder; jkonstantinbatygin; johnmatese; jupiter; kbo; konstantinbatygin; mikebrown; ninthplanet; orbitalperiod; planet9; planetx; pluto; tno; xplanets
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-40 last
To: WhiskeyX

Yea, I know. From the same or similar idiots that tell us we “climate change”. These so called scientists are the biggest joke ever hoisted on mankind.


21 posted on 01/20/2016 2:12:07 PM PST by caver (Obama: Home of the Whopper)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Rastus

Good likeness of Obama on that flag.


22 posted on 01/20/2016 2:13:21 PM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin; SunkenCiv

A specter is haunting the Solar System . . .


23 posted on 01/20/2016 2:14:57 PM PST by colorado tanker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: colorado tanker; SunkenCiv

With an orbital period of about 20,000 years.

Wonder when it last made its closest approach.


24 posted on 01/20/2016 2:16:44 PM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: caver

The designation of planet is rather arbitrary and non-scientific in the first place, being based upon its original definition of being as “wanderer” in the sky. So too were all manner of asteroids. Ceres too is a planetoid in a Solar orbit, but we did not classify it as a major planet.


25 posted on 01/20/2016 2:18:05 PM PST by WhiskeyX
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: NorthMountain
Pluto and Neptune were both discovered after educated speculation suggested where to look for them.

Those were successes, but Vulcan has not been found, and I guess they gave up on that search. -tom

26 posted on 01/20/2016 2:20:58 PM PST by Capt. Tom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin; SunkenCiv

The article I read said these guys have no idea where it might be in its orbit. It would be hard to spot if it’s “close” but if it’s way out there?


27 posted on 01/20/2016 2:21:28 PM PST by colorado tanker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin
With an orbital period of about 20,000 years. Wonder when it last made its closest approach.

After consulting star charts and using NSA's secret humongo computer, I come up with roughly about 18,000 BC for the last close approach.

:>)

28 posted on 01/20/2016 2:21:50 PM PST by Covenantor (Men are ruled..e.by liars who refuse them news, and by fools who cannot govern - Chesterton)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: colorado tanker

The bias in the orbits of 2012 VP113, and Sedna give a clue on which general direction to look, but that’s all they have.


29 posted on 01/20/2016 2:27:30 PM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin

Pretty exciting to think this thing might actually exist, isn’t it?


30 posted on 01/20/2016 2:45:23 PM PST by colorado tanker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lsWrG7pBZk

It should be pretty quick actually..


31 posted on 01/20/2016 2:53:04 PM PST by Ghost of SVR4 (So many are so hopelessly dependent on the government that they will fight to protect it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MNDude

“My very eager mother just served us nine pizzas”


32 posted on 01/20/2016 3:12:17 PM PST by outofsalt ( If history teaches us anything it's that history rarely teaches us anything.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin; colorado tanker

Thanks BenLurkin and colorado tanker.
 
X-Planets
· join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post new topic · subscribe ·
Google news searches: exoplanet · exosolar · extrasolar ·

33 posted on 01/20/2016 4:00:25 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Here's to the day the forensics people scrape what's left of Putin off the ceiling of his limo.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Rastus

That won’t work. You know he’ll only want to go to the 7th planet(Uranus).


34 posted on 01/20/2016 4:00:55 PM PST by EvilCapitalist (Cruz 2016)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Boogieman

Oh that IS and old one! 10 Cents! Must be 1950s as they went to 12 cents around 1960!


35 posted on 01/20/2016 4:04:14 PM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv; blam

36 posted on 01/20/2016 4:06:22 PM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: EvilCapitalist

Maybe URanus!


37 posted on 01/20/2016 4:20:59 PM PST by Rastus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin

First, you told me Pluto was a planet.

Then, you told,e Pluto wasn’t a planet.

Then, you told me Pluto was a really small planet

Now, you want me to believe you?? I have lost all faith in you. Go bother someone else.


38 posted on 01/20/2016 4:24:41 PM PST by KosmicKitty (Liberals claim to want to hear other views, but then are shocked to discover there are other views)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: colorado tanker

I bet Nancy Leider is so excited she had to change her Depends.


39 posted on 01/20/2016 7:39:31 PM PST by ponygirl (An Appeal to Heaven.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

http://web.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/

http://www.mikebrownsplanets.com/

https://twitter.com/plutokiller?lang=en


40 posted on 01/21/2016 12:30:56 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Here's to the day the forensics people scrape what's left of Putin off the ceiling of his limo.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-40 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson