A Giant Planet Seems to Be Lurking Somewhere in Our Solar System

Science Alert ^ | 19 February 2023 | By SARA WEBB, THE CONVERSATION

[Red Badger]

Our Solar System is a pretty busy place. There are millions of objects moving around – everything from planets, to moons, to comets, and asteroids. And each year we're discovering more and more objects (usually small asteroids or speedy comets) that call the Solar System home.

Astronomers had found all eight of the main planets by 1846. But that doesn't stop us from looking for more. In the past 100 years, we've found smaller distant bodies we call dwarf planets, which is what we now classify Pluto as.

The discovery of some of these dwarf planets has given us reason to believe something else might be lurking in the outskirts of the Solar System.

Could there be a ninth planet?

There's a good reason astronomers spend many hundreds of hours trying to locate a ninth planet, aka " Planet Nine" or "Planet X". And that's because the Solar System as we know it doesn't really make sense without it.

Every object in our Solar System orbits around the Sun. Some move fast and some slow, but all move abiding by the laws of gravity. Everything with mass has gravity, including you and me. The heavier something is, the more gravity it has.

A planet's gravity is so large it impacts how things move around it. That's what we call its "gravitational pull". Earth's gravitational pull is what keeps everything on the ground.

Also, our Sun has the largest gravitational pull of any object in the Solar System, and this is basically why the planets orbit around it.

It's through our understanding of gravitational pull that we get our biggest clue for a possible Planet Nine.

Unexpected behaviors

When we look at really distant objects, such as dwarf planets beyond Pluto, we find their orbits are a little unexpected. They move on very large elliptical (oval-shaped) orbits, are grouped together, and exist on an incline compared to the rest of the Solar System.

When astronomers use a computer to model what gravitational forces are needed for these objects to move like this, they find that a planet at least ten times the mass of Earth would have been required to cause this.

It is super-exciting stuff! But then the question is: where is this planet?

The problem we have now is trying to confirm if these predictions and models are correct. The only way to do that is to find Planet Nine, which is definitely easier said than done.

The hunt continues

Scientists all over the world have been on the hunt for visible evidence of Planet Nine for many years now.

Based on the computer models, we think Planet Nine is at least 20 times farther away from the Sun than Neptune. We try to detect it by looking for sunlight it can reflect – just like how the Moon shines from reflected sunlight at night.

However, because Planet Nine sits so far away from the Sun, we expect it to be very faint and difficult to spot for even the best telescopes on Earth. Also, we can't just look for it at any time of the year.

We only have small windows of nights where the conditions must be just right. Specifically, we have to wait for a night with no Moon, and on which the location we're observing from is facing the right part of the sky.

But don't give up hope just yet. In the next decade, new telescopes will be built and new surveys of the sky will begin. They might just give us the opportunity to prove or disprove whether Planet Nine exists.

[PIF]

we have to wait for a night with no Moon, and on which the location we’re observing from is facing the right part of the sky.

—

What Hubble doing?

What James Webb doing?

Are they waiting for the Moon?

[Seruzawa]

At least they didn’t call a parsec a unit of time.

[spokeshave]

Its just a dingle-berry on Uranus.

[njslim]

most likely Cling-ons .......

[parmamenian]

Also a large black hole..some call it Whoopi!

[EvilCapitalist]

Lol!

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks J for that post. Thanks Red Badger for the topic.

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[mykroar]

That’s no moon!

[Brilliant]

Hubble.

[SunkenCiv]

Here's the rest of the deus ex machina keyword, because I could sense you were wondering what is the holdup? Sorted, edited a little.

• Star Blasted Through Solar System 70,000 Years Ago [02/18/2015]
• A close call of 0.8 light years [Nibiru?] [02/22/2015]

  ---

• We May Have Had an Interstellar Visitor for Eons and Scientists Are Stumped [02/06/2023]
• Astronomers Think They Know The Reason For Uranus's Kooky Off-Kilter Axis [10/04/2022]
• Our Sun May Have Been Born With a Trouble-Making Twin Called 'Nemesis' [12/09/2021]
• What If Earth got Kicked Out of the Solar System? Rogue Earth (9:45) [02/11/2021]
• Baby Jupiter was likely slammed by planet 4.5 billion years ago [08/15/2019]
• Moons that escape their planets are now called 'ploonets' [07/13/2019]
• The sun follows the rhythm of the planets [06/05/2019]
• Something Strange Punched a Hole in the Milky Way. But What Exactly Is It? [05/16/2019]
• Jupiter Used to Be Four Times Farther from the Sun, Study Claims [03/26/2019]
• A Diamond the Size of Earth - is this Jupiter's core? [12/28/2018]
• Science Says: A big space crash likely made Uranus lopsided [12/21/2018]
• A big space crash likely made Uranus lopsided [12/21/2018]
• Newfound Dwarf Planet 'The Goblin' May Lead to Mysterious Planet Nine [10/02/2018]
• Bizarre Rogue 'Planet' with Incredible Auroras Puzzles Scientists [08/06/2018]
• Astronomers discover a free-range planet with incredible magnetism [08/05/2018]
• VLA detects possible extrasolar planetary-mass magnetic powerhouse [08/05/2018]
• Study of Uranus Suggests Some of its Moons are on a Collision Course [07/04/2018]
• A massive object devastated Uranus a long time ago and it never fully recovered [07/04/2018]
• Did Something Massive Smash Into Uranus? [07/04/2018]
• 'Cataclysmic' collision shaped Uranus' evolution [07/03/2018]
• Jupiter and Venus Change Earth's Orbit Every 405,000 Years [05/10/2018]
• How Did Uranus Form? [03/09/2018]
• Mars and Earth May Not Have Been Early Neighbors [12/19/2017]
• Rogue planet could bring end of days this weekend [11/17/2017]
• Hubble Just Spotted Something Massive Coming Out of Uranus [10/14/2017]
• Does Jupiter Have a Solid Core? [05/09/2017]
• NASA says mysterious object hurtling towards Earth could be an asteroid or a comet [01/04/2017]
• Stony meteorites reveal the timing of Jupiter's migration [12/14/2016]
• Why is Uranus on its Side? [08/06/2016]
• Planet Nine's profile fleshed out [04/09/2016]
• Newly discovered planet could destroy Earth any day now [04/06/2016]
• Mysterious planet wiped out life on Earth once and could do it again THIS MONTH [04/06/2016]
• Researcher links mass extinctions to 'Planet X' [04/02/2016]
• Scientists just found more evidence that Planet Nine exists in our Solar System [03/29/2016]
• Search Narrows For Planet Nine [02/25/2016]
• The truth about exoplanets [02/23/2016]
• Don't Blame 'Planet Nine' for Earth's Mass Extinctions [01/26/2016]
• Researchers find evidence of a real ninth planet [01/20/2016]
• There's a ninth planet in our solar system - we just can't see it yet, study says [01/20/2016]
• Ninth Planet May Exist in Solar System Beyond Pluto, New Evidence Suggests [01/20/2016]
• Scientists may have found Planet X, the mysterious presence that has eluded astronomers [12/12/2015]
• The Chilling Regularity of Mass Extinctions [11/03/2015]
• Did Jupiter Bumped The Giant Planet From Our Solar System? [11/02/2015]
• Why Earth is so much bigger than Mars: Rocky planets formed from 'pebbles' [10/27/2015]
• Is there a Planet X, a 'massive perturber,' hidden beyond Pluto? [09/05/2015]
• Youthful Frozen Plains Cover Pluto's Big 'Heart' -- Spectacular New Images from New Horizons [07/17/2015]
• Young Jupiter wiped out solar system's early inner planets, study says [03/23/2015]
• Two more planets in our Solar System, say astronomers [01/20/2015]
• New Examination of Trans-Neptunian Objects Suggests Two Planets Lurk in Outer Solar System [01/16/2015]
• Astronomers are Predicting at Least Two More Large Planets in the Solar System [01/15/2015]
• CFBDSIR2149: An Orphaned Planet Without A Parent Star (VIDEO) [11/14/2012]
• Free-floating planets in the Milky Way outnumber stars by factors of thousands [05/10/2012]
• How Many Loose Planets in the Milky Way? [03/10/2012]
• When straying Jupiter went on the pull [02/15/2012]
• Earth Must Have Another Moon, Say Astronomers [12/22/2011]
• Giant planet ejected from the solar system [11/11/2011]
• Series of bumps sent Uranus into its sideways spin [10/10/2011]
• Who Needs a Moon? [05/28/2011]
• So Many Lonely Planets with No Star to Guide Them [05/19/2011]
• 'Free-floating' planets found with no star in sight [05/19/2011]
• Lonely Rogue Worlds Surprisingly Outnumber Planets with Suns [05/18/2011]
• Astronomers Doubt Giant Planet 'Tyche' Exists In Our Solar System [02/15/2011]
• Giant Stealth Planet May Explain Rain of Comets from Solar System's Edge [12/04/2010]
• 'Jupiter swallowed planet 10 times the size of Earth' [08/13/2010]
• Neptune may have eaten a planet and stolen its moon [04/03/2010]
• On the Fringe: Astronomers look to the Kuiper belt for clues to the solar system's history [01/14/2010]
• Asteroid Belt Loaded with Former Comets [07/16/2009]
• The Curious Case of Missing Asteroids [03/03/2009]
• Were Mercury and Mars separated at birth? [01/19/2009]
• Are Jupiters Hard to Come By? [08/12/2008]
• Venus' Tail of the Unexpected [02/23/2008]
• Solving Solar System Quandaries Is Simple: Just Flip-flop The Position Of Uranus And Neptune [12/30/2007]
• Tech in worship services attracts some, distracts others [11/24/2007]
• New data challenge Earth atmosphere theory [11/03/2007]
• Gas Giants Jump Into Planet Formation Early [06/27/2007]
• New insights into composition of giant planets [10/18/2006]
• Object Survives Being Swallowed by a Star [08/03/2006]
• We're going on a planet hunt [04/05/2006]
• Death Spiral: Why Theorists Can't Make Solar Systems [03/29/2006]
• Moving the Orbits of Planets [02/02/2006]
• Rogue Planet Find Makes Astronomers Ponder Theory [12/28/2005]
• Far-out worlds, just waiting to be found [07/20/2005]
• Stellar encounters as the origin of distant Solar System objects in highly eccentric orbits [12/02/2004]

[Allegra]

Planet Claire?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1EPP3gkh_00

[gitmo]

Mine’s accounted for. So it’s not mine.

[Penelope Dreadful]

I have been watching science stuff on youtube, and I have learned that gravity don’t pull nothing. Gravity is NOT a force. It is the warping of space that causes all the orbiting stuff, and I learned that in a bucket of water, gravity comes from everywhere unless it is falling in a vacuum. I did not know they had vacuums in Galileo’s day. I thought they used brooms??? That you had to lay the bent to, if it is a bonnie broom - whatever a bent is - maybe something to do with gravity??? It is supposed to bend stuff.

[SuperLuminal]

Old, worn-out news...

[SunkenCiv]

Edited a little more.

• Star Blasted Through Solar System 70,000 Years Ago [02/18/2015]
• A close call of 0.8 light years [Nibiru?] [02/22/2015]

  ---

• Something Strange Punched a Hole in the Milky Way. But What Exactly Is It? [05/16/2019]
• Giant planet ejected from the solar system [11/11/2011]

  ---

• Astronomers Think They Know The Reason For Uranus's Kooky Off-Kilter Axis [10/04/2022]
• Science Says: A big space crash likely made Uranus lopsided [12/21/2018]
• A big space crash likely made Uranus lopsided [12/21/2018]
• Study of Uranus Suggests Some of its Moons are on a Collision Course [07/04/2018]
• A massive object devastated Uranus a long time ago and it never fully recovered [07/04/2018]
• Did Something Massive Smash Into Uranus? [07/04/2018]
• 'Cataclysmic' collision shaped Uranus' evolution [07/03/2018]
• How Did Uranus Form? [03/09/2018]
• Hubble Just Spotted Something Massive Coming Out of Uranus [10/14/2017]
• Why is Uranus on its Side? [08/06/2016]
• Series of bumps sent Uranus into its sideways spin [10/10/2011]
• Solving Solar System Quandaries Is Simple: Just Flip-flop The Position Of Uranus And Neptune [12/30/2007]

  ---

• Newfound Dwarf Planet 'The Goblin' May Lead to Mysterious Planet Nine [10/02/2018]
• Planet Nine's profile fleshed out [04/09/2016]
• Scientists just found more evidence that Planet Nine exists in our Solar System [03/29/2016]
• Search Narrows For Planet Nine [02/25/2016]
• Researchers find evidence of a real ninth planet [01/20/2016]
• There's a ninth planet in our solar system - we just can't see it yet, study says [01/20/2016]
• Ninth Planet May Exist in Solar System Beyond Pluto, New Evidence Suggests [01/20/2016]
• Scientists may have found Planet X, the mysterious presence that has eluded astronomers [12/12/2015]
• Two more planets in our Solar System, say astronomers [01/20/2015]
• New Examination of Trans-Neptunian Objects Suggests Two Planets Lurk in Outer Solar System [01/16/2015]
• Astronomers are Predicting at Least Two More Large Planets in the Solar System [01/15/2015]
• We're going on a planet hunt [04/05/2006]
• Far-out worlds, just waiting to be found [07/20/2005]

  ---

• Baby Jupiter was likely slammed by planet 4.5 billion years ago [08/15/2019]
• Jupiter Used to Be Four Times Farther from the Sun, Study Claims [03/26/2019]
• A Diamond the Size of Earth - is this Jupiter's core? [12/28/2018]
• Jupiter and Venus Change Earth's Orbit Every 405,000 Years [05/10/2018]
• Does Jupiter Have a Solid Core? [05/09/2017]
• Stony meteorites reveal the timing of Jupiter's migration [12/14/2016]
• Did Jupiter Bumped The Giant Planet From Our Solar System? [11/02/2015]
• Young Jupiter wiped out solar system's early inner planets, study says [03/23/2015]
• When straying Jupiter went on the pull [02/15/2012]
• 'Jupiter swallowed planet 10 times the size of Earth' [08/13/2010]
• Are Jupiters Hard to Come By? [08/12/2008]

  ---

• Mars and Earth May Not Have Been Early Neighbors [12/19/2017]
• Why Earth is so much bigger than Mars: Rocky planets formed from 'pebbles' [10/27/2015]
• Were Mercury and Mars separated at birth? [01/19/2009]
• Venus' Tail of the Unexpected [02/23/2008]

  ---

• The sun follows the rhythm of the planets [06/05/2019]
• NASA says mysterious object hurtling towards Earth could be an asteroid or a comet [01/04/2017]
• The truth about exoplanets [02/23/2016]
• Youthful Frozen Plains Cover Pluto's Big 'Heart' -- Spectacular New Images from New Horizons [07/17/2015]

  ---

• We May Have Had an Interstellar Visitor for Eons and Scientists Are Stumped [02/06/2023]
• Our Sun May Have Been Born With a Trouble-Making Twin Called 'Nemesis' [12/09/2021]
• Rogue planet could bring end of days this weekend [11/17/2017]
• Newly discovered planet could destroy Earth any day now [04/06/2016]
• Mysterious planet wiped out life on Earth once and could do it again THIS MONTH [04/06/2016]
• Researcher links mass extinctions to 'Planet X' [04/02/2016]
• Don't Blame 'Planet Nine' for Earth's Mass Extinctions [01/26/2016]
• The Chilling Regularity of Mass Extinctions [11/03/2015]
• Is there a Planet X, a 'massive perturber,' hidden beyond Pluto? [09/05/2015]
• Astronomers Doubt Giant Planet 'Tyche' Exists In Our Solar System [02/15/2011]
• Giant Stealth Planet May Explain Rain of Comets from Solar System's Edge [12/04/2010]
• On the Fringe: Astronomers look to the Kuiper belt for clues to the solar system's history [01/14/2010]
• Death Spiral: Why Theorists Can't Make Solar Systems [03/29/2006]
• Stellar encounters as the origin of distant Solar System objects in highly eccentric orbits [12/02/2004]

  ---

• Moons that escape their planets are now called 'ploonets' [07/13/2019]
• Earth Must Have Another Moon, Say Astronomers [12/22/2011]
• Who Needs a Moon? [05/28/2011]

  ---

• What If Earth got Kicked Out of the Solar System? Rogue Earth (9:45) [02/11/2021]
• Bizarre Rogue 'Planet' with Incredible Auroras Puzzles Scientists [08/06/2018]
• Astronomers discover a free-range planet with incredible magnetism [08/05/2018]
• VLA detects possible extrasolar planetary-mass magnetic powerhouse [08/05/2018]
• CFBDSIR2149: An Orphaned Planet Without A Parent Star (VIDEO) [11/14/2012]
• Free-floating planets in the Milky Way outnumber stars by factors of thousands [05/10/2012]
• How Many Loose Planets in the Milky Way? [03/10/2012]
• So Many Lonely Planets with No Star to Guide Them [05/19/2011]
• 'Free-floating' planets found with no star in sight [05/19/2011]
• Lonely Rogue Worlds Surprisingly Outnumber Planets with Suns [05/18/2011]
• Rogue Planet Find Makes Astronomers Ponder Theory [12/28/2005]

  ---

• Neptune may have eaten a planet and stolen its moon [04/03/2010]
• Asteroid Belt Loaded with Former Comets [07/16/2009]
• The Curious Case of Missing Asteroids [03/03/2009]
• Tech in worship services attracts some, distracts others [11/24/2007]
• New data challenge Earth atmosphere theory [11/03/2007]
• Gas Giants Jump Into Planet Formation Early [06/27/2007]
• New insights into composition of giant planets [10/18/2006]
• Object Survives Being Swallowed by a Star [08/03/2006]
• Moving the Orbits of Planets [02/02/2006]

[lee martell]

Chthulu beckons!

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Journey to the Far Side of the Sun
Original title: Doppelgänger 1969

[OldWarBaby]

Niburu: Yup, Zach Szitchens(sp) had it figgered out a long time ago. And that’s where the rocks in the asteroid belt came from. The planets just keep beating each other up.

[ealgeone]

Nibiru!

THIS!!!

[43north]

Sixty posts and no one has yet stated the obvious so I guess I will: WAKANDA!!!