Posted on 01/20/2016 7:52:49 PM PST by Utilizer
Caltech researchers have found evidence of a giant planet tracing a bizarre, highly elongated orbit in the outer solar system. The object, which the researchers have nicknamed Planet Nine, has a mass about 10 times that of Earth and orbits about 20 times farther from the sun on average than does Neptune (which orbits the sun at an average distance of 2.8 billion miles). In fact, it would take this new planet between 10,000 and 20,000 years to make just one full orbit around the sun.
The researchers, Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown, discovered the planet's existence through mathematical modeling and computer simulations but have not yet observed the object directly.
"This would be a real ninth planet," says Brown, the Richard and Barbara Rosenberg Professor of Planetary Astronomy. "There have only been two true planets discovered since ancient times, and this would be a third. It's a pretty substantial chunk of our solar system that's still out there to be found, which is pretty exciting."
Brown notes that the putative ninth planet--at 5,000 times the mass of Pluto--is sufficiently large that there should be no debate about whether it is a true planet. Unlike the class of smaller objects now known as dwarf planets, Planet Nine gravitationally dominates its neighborhood of the solar system. In fact, it dominates a region larger than any of the other known planets--a fact that Brown says makes it "the most planet-y of the planets in the whole solar system."
Batygin and Brown describe their work in the current issue of the Astronomical Journal and show how Planet Nine helps explain a number of mysterious features of the field of icy objects and debris beyond Neptune known as the Kuiper Belt.
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
Some interesting images and diagrams at site...
Not certain if this is of interest to you, mate, but just in case I thought I would mention it. :)
They should say 10th planet. Pluto is still one no matter what some so called scientists say.
I doubt that it can keep its orbit clear as directed by the Pluto is not a planet crowd.
Quick, someone page the implant in Nancy Leider’s brain...
Oh man...
“Plan[et] 9 From Outer Space”
Since 2006, Pluto remains demoted, changing from an actual planet to a mere dwarf planet.
From the article comes an affirmation of the basic scientific principle.
“A good theory should not only explain things that you set out to explain. It should hopefully explain things that you didn’t set out to explain and make predictions that are testable,”
Now if only the AGW/ACC crowd would catch on...
Yar. I still believe that Pluto is a planet the same as I was taught, but I just post the headlines as they appear at the sites, according to the FR Rules and Regs. (”Posting Guidelines”) :)
Is this the one larger than Jupiter that they told us about a few years ago?
They named that one Tyche.
It’s pretty obvious if you look at Pluto’s orbit simple logic will tell you there’s something out there large enough to affect it’s orbit or did at one time.
ORBIT OF PLUTO
http://www.universetoday.com/13865/orbit-of-pluto/
‘Planet Nine’ May Exist: New Evidence for Another World in Our Solar System
http://www.space.com/31670-planet-nine-solar-system-discovery.html
Nibiru!
Dwarves are planets, too.
-JT
A dwarf planet is still a planet, just like a dwarf human is still a human...
Pluto is just a dimensionally challenged planet.
Thank you. That’s very polite.
(I was also raised in school learning of 9 planets, and have never converted.)
-JT
Earths diameter 7,917.5 mi
Mars diameter 4,212 mi
Mercurys diameter 3,032 mi
Earths Moon diameter 2,159 mi
Plutos diameter 1,474 mi
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