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

Skip to comments.

Are We about to Discover a New Planet in Our Solar System?
YouTube, Astrographics channel ^ | February 7, 2024 | host Simon Whistler

Posted on 02/12/2024 6:49:13 AM PST by SunkenCiv

Unravel the cosmic enigma with our latest video on the elusive "Planet Nine"! Join the quest as astronomers explore gravitational hints, peculiar orbits, and groundbreaking techniques in the relentless search.
Are We about to Discover a New Planet in Our Solar System? | 21:46
Astrographics | 44.6K subscribers | 329,973 views | February 7, 2024
Are We about to Discover a New Planet in Our Solar System? | 21:46 | Astrographics | 44.6K subscribers | 329,973 views | February 7, 2024

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


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: 9thplanet; astronomy; brianmay; kbo; kuiperbelt; ninthplanet; planet9; planetnine; pluto; sarawebb; science; simonwhistler; theconversation; tno; xplanets
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-25 next last
Transcript
0:00·as you watch this swaths of the
0:01·astronomy Community are engaged in the
0:03·greatest treasure hunt in over a century
0:06·somewhere out on the fringes of the
0:08·solar system it's thought a massive
0:10·object might L one we've so far only
0:12·been able to indirectly sense thanks to
0:14·its gravitational effect on several
0:16·smaller objects but which may soon be
0:18·cited directly a here to unnoticed
0:20·planet that would represent the First
0:21·new addition to our Cosmic Family in
0:23·living memory known imaginatively as
0:26·Planet 9 this invisible world is
0:28·currently only theoretical but since it
0:30·was first proposed in 2016 evidence has
0:32·been stacking up that it may be out
0:34·there evidence that suggests we might
0:36·soon have to rewrite the entire history
0:39·of the solar system I mean at least
0:41·that's the hope the plane sized pot of
0:43·gold tempting astronomers to keep
0:45·following this Cosmic rainbow yet as
0:47·we're about to see the science
0:49·surrounding Planet 9 remains unsettled
0:52·it could be Humanity's next great
0:53·discovery or it could be something far
0:55·weirder join us today as we turn our
0:58·attention to the edges of our solar
0:59·system and try and separate fact from
1:01·fiction regarding our missing neighbor
1:03·ironically the idea of a missing ninth
1:05·planet was born at the exact same moment
1:07·astronomers were reducing the official
1:09·tally down to eight the era was the
1:11·beginning of the 21st century an era
1:14·that had seen a Cascade of discoveries
1:16·about the outer solar system along with
1:18·major controversy first the discoveries
1:20·back in 1992 scientists have finally
1:22·confirmed the existence of the Kyper
1:24·belt a ring of objects beyond the orbit
1:27·of Neptune filled with icy bodies but it
1:29·was only as the new century dawned that
1:32·the size of some of these bodies started
1:34·to become clear between 2002 and 2005
1:37·researchers led by Mike Brown cited six
1:39·dwarf planets that rivaled Pluto it was
1:41·this last fact that sparked controversy
1:44·with one of the Newfound dwarf planets
1:46·arys having a greater mass than the
1:47·former ninth planet astronomers began to
1:50·question whether poor old Pluto is even
1:53·really a planet at all infamously this
1:55·led to a 2006 meeting of the
1:57·international astronomical Union where
1:59·attendees narrowly voted to strip Pluto
2:01·of its status yet even as kids
2:03·everywhere began unhappily redesigning
2:05·their science fair solar system models
2:07·there were already signs emerging that
2:08·there might be a ninth planet after all
2:10·that while Pluto may be too small to
2:12·really count that didn't mean there
2:14·wasn't another larger World lurking out
2:16·there the first clue came from one of
2:18·the new dwarf planet candidates sedna
2:21·Unlike Pluto arys or other newcomers
2:24·like maam Mara or how mayor sedna didn't
2:26·behave like a regular Kyper belt object
2:29·instead it had an extremely weird orbit
2:32·one that took it from a closest approach
2:34·to the sun of 84 Au where 1 Au is the
2:37·distance from Earth to our star all the
2:39·way out to a furthest point of 937 Au a
2:43·bizarre elongated orbit that takes over
2:45·11,000 years at the time it was assumed
2:48·that SED was simply a weird one off a
2:50·freaky little world doing its own freaky
2:52·thing on the outskirts of the solar
2:53·system but then we began to locate and
2:55·investigate more and more objects in the
2:57·region and it started to look like maybe
2:59·set no wasn't alone trans neptunian
3:01·objects or tnos is the name given to
3:04·small icy bodies just beyond the orbit
3:06·of Neptune leftover building blocks of
3:08·the solar system they're often quite
3:10·hard to detect although we think tnos
3:12·larger than 100 kilm May number in the
3:14·hundreds of thousands so far we've only
3:16·located about 4,000 of them but even
3:18·with this small sample size we can see
3:20·that some of them behave in ways our
3:22·model of the solar system doesn't
3:23·predict first there are the detached
3:26·tnos accounting for about 10% of all
3:28·tnos the these little dudes have orbits
3:31·that aren't influenced by Neptune while
3:33·a models say a few should exist it's
3:35·very hard to account for the sheer
3:37·number of them next you have a bunch of
3:38·TNS with orbits at Wild angles that
3:41·means they zip around the Sun at a tilt
3:42·of more than 45° another thing our
3:44·models don't predict happening on such a
3:46·large scale finally there are the tnos
3:49·with such odd orbits that they're
3:51·sometimes dubbed etnos extreme trans
3:54·neptunian objects numbering about a
3:56·dozen they're scattered in such a wild
3:58·way that some new gravitational s ources
4:00·seemingly needed something that threw
4:02·them out of alignment in the distant
4:03·past and now keeps them trapped in their
4:06·eccentric dances the CTIC astronomers
4:08·Mike Brown and Constantine batan there
4:10·was one simple explanation in 2016 they
4:14·published a paper suggesting sedna and
4:16·five other etnos were likely being
4:18·influenced by a hidden world one with
4:21·between five and 10 times the mass of
4:23·Earth in short a missing ninth planet in
4:27·the seven years since that Cosmos
4:28·shaking announc M the theory has been
4:30·refined today is thought the planet 9 is
4:32·smaller than originally estimated closer
4:34·to six times the mass of Earth rather
4:36·than 10 there are also now 11 TN
4:38·identified as having been perturbed by
4:40·its orbit rather than just six still the
4:43·basic outlines of the theory remain
4:45·intact the idea that there may be a
4:47·whole other world Beyond Neptune a
4:49·neighbor Humanity has remained ignorant
4:51·of even as we've gained the ability to
4:54·detect planets in other solar systems if
4:56·that's the case and another planet is
4:58·really there then it raises an obvious
5:00·question what's it like planets in our
5:03·solar system are divided into three
5:05·distinct categories you have the rocky
5:07·terrestrial worlds Earth Venus Mars and
5:09·Mercury then you have the gas giants
5:11·like Jupiter and Saturn and finally
5:12·you've got the ice giants including not
5:14·just Neptune but also the gassy Glory
5:17·that is Uranus if you were feeling
5:20·generous you could also add to that list
5:21·the dwarf planets but the main point
5:24·isn't whether our solar system contains
5:25·three or four classes of Worlds but that
5:28·whatever the true number finding Planet
5:30·9 would increase that total that's
5:33·because Planet 99's estimated Mass Falls
5:35·between that of Earth and Neptune
5:37·meaning one of two outcomes is likely
5:38·it's either a rocky super Earth or a
5:41·gaseous sub Neptune either way finding
5:43·it would be extremely exciting imagine
5:46·for a second how paleontologists would
5:48·feel finding a living Mammoth right now
5:51·we only know these creatures from
5:52·tracers left over from bygone eras to
5:55·suddenly go from working with vague
5:56·outlines to having a living creature to
5:58·study would be pretty mind expanding in
6:01·a way that's sort of how planetary
6:03·scientists would feel discovering a sub
6:05·Neptune in our backyard obviously the
6:08·analogy isn't perfect sub Neptunes are
6:09·extremely common across the Galaxy
6:11·whereas living mammoths are uncommon to
6:13·the point of being non-extinct still it
6:16·hopefully gives you some vague idea of
6:18·how awesome such a find would be how it
6:20·would help unlock the secrets of
6:22·planetary formation in both distant star
6:24·systems and inside our own and that last
6:26·point there is key so far from the Sun
6:29·there's no no way a sub Neptune or super
6:31·Earth could have been created where it
6:33·now orbits instead it must have been
6:36·born closer in only to be flung outwards
6:38·during an era of chaos caused by
6:40·Jupiter's early movements some think the
6:42·reason Uranus is tilted on its side is
6:44·due to a chance interaction with a
6:46·migrating planet nine alternatively it
6:48·might have once belonged to another star
6:50·only to be captured by our Sun's gravity
6:52·as the two systems swept by one another
6:54·long ago of course this is all just
6:57·speculation a towering edifice of of
6:59·theory built ATP a bunch of extremely
7:01·distant objects moving in some weird
7:03·ways yet that doesn't mean the
7:04·foundations for this Tower aren't solid
7:07·after all Humanity has already made
7:09·major planetary discoveries based on
7:10·orbital disturbances most famously this
7:13·includes discovering Neptune ever since
7:15·William herel first sted hungrily at
7:17·Uranus people have been aware that
7:19·planet 7's orbit was kind of off like
7:22·something big was influencing it in 1846
7:25·Urban Laria did the calculations and
7:27·pinpointed exactly where that unseen
7:29·object was the same evening he alerted a
7:31·German astronomer and Neptune was
7:34·discovered it's an episode that shows
7:36·the value of paying attention to
7:37·seemingly small irregularities
7:39·consciously or not today's astronomers
7:42·are all hoping to repeat laria's trick
7:44·and discover Planet 9 that is if we
7:47·haven't discovered it already in the
7:49·cases of Uranus Neptune Pluto and ays
7:53·all four bodies turned out to have been
7:55·cited long before their official
7:57·discoveries allbe by people who didn't
7:58·realize what they were looking at
8:00·Neptune for example was recorded by
8:01·Galileo in 1612 but mistaken for a star
8:04·a photographic plate of Aris meanwhile
8:06·has been found dating to 1955 that means
8:09·there's a fair chance that if Planet 9
8:10·exists signs of it are already hiding in
8:13·some forgotten or overlooked data
8:15·somewhere we even have a potential
8:16·candidate back in 1983 astronomer
8:18·Michael Rowan Robinson undertook a
8:20·planet Hunting Expedition using the very
8:22·first infrared Space Telescope at the
8:25·time he thought he' found nothing but
8:26·after Brown and bat again published
8:28·their planet theory he went back and
8:31·Revisited his work there he found three
8:33·potential matches for the missing World
8:35·although the low quality of the
8:36·detections makes confirming them
8:38·impossible and that last Point brings us
8:40·neatly on to our next chapter with seven
8:42·years of searching under our Collective
8:43·belts you might be starting to wonder
8:46·why if we know roughly where it should
8:48·be we haven't found Planet 9 the answer
8:52·sadly is that finding a missing Planet
8:53·at such distances even one close in size
8:56·to Neptune is near impossible of after
8:59·refining their work Brown and bat again
9:01·recently made a welcome announcement
9:03·rather than an orbital journey of more
9:04·than 18,000 years they instead expect
9:06·Planet 9 to circle the sun once every
9:08·7,400 years that means it should be
9:10·closer and brighter than initially
9:12·anticipated and therefore easier to see
9:14·in theory the news was great slicing
9:15·over 10,000 years off an object's orbit
9:17·sharply reduces the amount of distance
9:19·it covers in Practical terms though an
9:21·object that takes over 7,000 years to
9:23·orbit the Sun is still capable of
9:24·traveling very very far away from us
9:27·Pluto's orbit for comparison takes Sun
9:29·250 years and while sedna's 11,400 year
9:32·orbit is longer than Planet 9es sedna
9:35·always discovered when it was near perah
9:37·helon the point when an object is
9:39·closest to the Sun by contrast Planet 9
9:41·is thought to currently be at its
9:43·furthest point that means looking for a
9:45·very very tiny spec moving very very
9:48·slowly against the Milky Way Starfield
9:50·so far from the Sun the missing world
9:52·will be reflecting very little light
9:54·making it hard to detect invisible
9:55·wavelengths it temperature is also
9:57·likely to be very very low perhaps
9:59·causing it to only radiate the far
10:02·infrared Spectrum the word far there is
10:05·the important part because it means it
10:06·will be invisible to even the James web
10:08·Space Telescope which is incapable of
10:10·observing things in the far infrared
10:11·range indeed observing extremely distant
10:14·things in infrared can come with its own
10:15·set of problems a 2022 study by cedrick
10:18·Chris and sergeants reported in Universe
10:20·today using two infrared Sky surveys
10:22·taken 20 years apart initially found 500
10:25·potential candidates for Planet 9 in the
10:26·data but when they dug into them
10:28·individually they found the majority
10:29·were Galactic cirrus clouds of
10:31·Interstellar dust that radiate in
10:33·infrared since Planet 9 is assumed to
10:35·currently be hidden by the Milky Way
10:37·Starfield such false positives would
10:39·plague any surge now these are not
10:42·insurmountable problems but overcoming
10:44·them will require not just superhuman
10:45·patience and lots and lots of telescope
10:47·time but also knowing exactly where to
10:49·look when we say something like Planet 9
10:51·is currently moving against the mway
10:53·Starfield it can be a little misleading
10:55·as it makes it sound like we've got a
10:56·rough location but this location is
10:59·rough in the same way that dropping a
11:01·marble out a jet flying over the United
11:03·States and declaring it landed in the
11:04·midwest is sure it's technically correct
11:07·but it won't really help anyone wanting
11:08·to track down and find that marble as
11:10·two planetary scientists explained in an
11:12·article for conversation the problem is
11:14·that these telescopes usually have a
11:16·very small field of view it is like
11:18·using a microscope to scan a very large
11:20·area for something small that we've
11:22·dropped this helps explain why so many
11:24·Searchers since 2016 have come up
11:26·empty-handed space Australia helpfully
11:28·listed some of the key instruments and
11:29·surveys so far used the wise telescope
11:32·the Gia spacecraft the test telescope
11:34·the dark energy survey and the Catalina
11:36·Sky survey as well as looking through
11:38·old data from stuff like the Siding
11:40·Spring survey and the zwiki transient
11:42·facility survey all turned up nothing
11:45·nor is it really possible to use the
11:47·orbits of tnos disrupted by Planet 9 to
11:50·pinpoint its location because we know
11:51·comparatively little about the Kyer belt
11:54·it's tough to really zero in on objects
11:56·that are behaving in weird ways and draw
11:58·conclusions from on them if we could see
12:00·and understand the belt's whole
12:02·structure we would be able to pinpoint
12:03·areas where a large planet has disrupted
12:06·things at the moment though we're
12:07·working with around a dozen objects that
12:10·may seem to be orbiting weirdly just as
12:12·a side effect of selection bias if
12:15·that's the case then Planet 9 may be
12:17·nothing more than a goost in the data a
12:19·phantom conjured Bon squinting at a
12:21·blurry and incomplete picture and hoping
12:23·desperately to see something luckily
12:25·combining all surveys and simply
12:26·pointing telescopes at trunks of the
12:27·night sky and hoping aren't the only
12:30·ways to track down a missing Planet it
12:32·may be that we're soon able to narrow
12:34·down our hidden neighbors location using
12:36·some pretty clever methods as Elton John
12:39·once sang of Mars planet 9 in fact is
12:41·cold as hell but you know what might not
12:43·be so cold any moons the planet has of
12:46·all the planets in our solar system only
12:48·two Mercury and Venus do not have any
12:50·moons that means it's highly likely
12:52·Planet 9 has some companions on its
12:54·lonely Journey Through the void
12:56·especially when you consider the region
12:57·it inhabits is full of teer as the most
12:59·massive gravity Source around it would
13:01·be amazing if Planet 9 hadn't captured
13:04·at least a few TN over the years just
13:06·look at Neptune there are good reasons
13:08·to believe its large Moon Triton is a
13:10·former dwarf planet dragged into the ice
13:12·giants orbit at this stage you might be
13:15·wondering why all of this matters surely
13:17·any moon so far away from the Sun is
13:19·going to be equally cold and therefore
13:22·even harder to see than its host World
13:25·well perhaps not education University of
13:27·Hong Kong scholar man her Chan recently
13:30·released a pre-print paper examining the
13:32·role of tidal heating on any moons
13:34·Planet 9 may have tidal heating is a
13:36·super interesting thing even for Layman
13:38·such as ourselves the result of gravity
13:40·pulling on an object in a non-uniform
13:42·way creating friction and thus heating
13:44·it's thought to be the mechanism that
13:46·keeps subsurface oceans liquid on moons
13:48·like Enceladus Europa and Triton in this
13:51·case though the paper isn't concerned
13:53·with liquid water but with the heat that
13:56·would be released from this process that
13:58·would make Planet 9's moons potentially
14:00·hotter than the planet itself meaning
14:02·wouldst stand a better chance of picking
14:03·them up in infrared surveys of the night
14:05·sky it's a fascinating concept and just
14:07·one of a recent slew of bold theories
14:10·put out on how we could detect the
14:11·invisible World another involves using
14:13·an even wider mechanism the path of an
14:15·Interstellar asteroid cnos
14:19·201418 is most famous as the meteor that
14:22·crashed offshore in Papa New Guinea in
14:24·2014 and later became the target of a
14:26·sea dredging Expedition led by lobe who
14:29·claims that it might be a piece of alien
14:31·equipment but whether or not it's the
14:33·staff of fox mold's wet dreams that may
14:36·have a far more pric use according to
14:39·Hector soas Navaro and ignatio Trio
14:42·Cabrera of The Institute astrophysic de
14:44·canarius by tracing its path back across
14:46·the solar system we can see whether it
14:48·interacted with a large object on its
14:50·way in 2023 they published a paper doing
14:53·just that in it they demonstrated how
14:55·the asteroid likely came from the region
14:56·of space where Planet 9 is is most
14:59·likely to be located if the planet is
15:01·indeed there then the odds of the meteor
15:03·interacting with its gravity are
15:04·something like
15:06·99.9% that means if we can figure out
15:08·when cnos S14 entered our solar system
15:11·we can plot its trajectory backwards and
15:13·pinpoint where Planet 9 was when the
15:15·meteor brushed by circus novaro and
15:18·Cabrera think this places the missing
15:20·World quote very close to the point
15:22·where the constellations Aries Taurus
15:24·and cus meet now to return to our
15:26·analogy from the last chapter having
15:27·confirmation of this world would be like
15:29·narrowing our airplane drop marbles
15:31·location down from the Midwest to
15:33·somewhere in downtown De Moine still a
15:36·huge area to search but one that's now
15:39·in the Realms of possibility but perhaps
15:41·the planet 9 location Mission we like
15:43·the most is the one that would involve
15:45·probing Uranus the most recent decad or
15:47·survey selected as highest priority for
15:49·NASA a dedicated mission to Planet 7
15:51·when it finally launches assuming the US
15:53·Congress can settle down long enough to
15:55·start funding science again the craft
15:57·will spend between 10 and 15 years
15:59·simply traveling through the void
16:00·between Jupiter and its Target rather
16:03·than an annoying pause though that
16:05·decade could prove invaluable to science
16:07·when an interplanetary craft is on a
16:09·long cruise like that it occasionally
16:11·checks in with a station on Earth you
16:13·know just a call to say where it is and
16:15·how it's doing so we know it's not about
16:17·to go flying off course or activate any
16:19·hidden monoliths or anything normally
16:21·these pings are relatively rare but if
16:24·we could make the Uranian probe fire off
16:26·enough we'd be able to see over time how
16:29·Planet 99's distant gravity affected the
16:31·craft it would be a subtle effect a near
16:34·invisible tugging but it would also be
16:36·enough for us to use that data to narrow
16:38·down Planet 99's location perhaps enough
16:40·so that astronomers could even be
16:42·convinced to start pointing powerful
16:44·telescopes in that direction knowing
16:46·that they had a decent probability of
16:47·finding something of course NASA won't
16:49·be ready to investigate the Majesty of
16:51·Uranus for several years that means
16:52·there's a good chance we'll have located
16:54·the planet long beforehand the ver
16:56·Reuben observatory in Chile is current
16:58·ly the most exciting science project not
17:00·enough people are talking about an 8.4 M
17:03·telescope it will photograph the entire
17:05·visible night sky every couple of days
17:07·producing mountains of data that
17:08·researchers will be able to sift through
17:10·looking for signs of unknown objects if
17:12·Planet 9 really is out there this is the
17:15·most likely way will find it what if it
17:16·isn't what if the VC reubin comes online
17:19·only to return nothing avoid where the
17:21·missing sub Neptune should rightly be
17:24·incredibly that might be even more
17:25·exciting than actually finding it
17:27·perhaps the most interesting thing about
17:29·planet 9 is its inherent sense of
17:30·mystery the feeling that it could be the
17:32·world brown and badan theorized back in
17:35·2016 or it could be something totally
17:37·different you know how you sometimes see
17:39·images of old maps that Drew on
17:40·hypothetical Australia before it was
17:42·ever actually cited well that's kind of
17:45·where we are with Planet 9 we think it's
17:47·out there we think we know roughly where
17:49·it is beyond that we might as well just
17:52·write here be Mysteries so if it turns
17:54·out the planet N9 isn't a missing
17:55·superar or a sub Neptune what might it
17:58·be the sist theory is that it really is
18:00·a planet just not one on the scale that
18:02·brown and ban imagined the trouble with
18:05·a sub Neptune is that it would be by far
18:07·the most powerful gravitational force in
18:09·the region so powerful that models
18:11·predict it would mess up the orbits of
18:13·far more TN than we're currently
18:14·witnessing in 2023 this led planetary
18:17·scientists Patrick safia Leck liaa and
18:20·takishi ETO to theorize in a paper
18:22·published in the astronomical journals
18:24·Planet 9 might be smaller small enough
18:26·to be comparable with Earth there is
18:28·research showed that a Planet Air 1.5
18:30·times the mass of Earth orbiting between
18:32·250 and 500 astronomical units from the
18:34·Sun could account for all the weird tnos
18:37·that we're aware of especially if its
18:39·orbit is tilted to 45° that would make
18:41·Planet 9 not some hidden giant but a
18:43·real life mest a near Twin of our worlds
18:47·likely cast outward at some point in the
18:49·early solar system to the icy Realm of
18:51·the Kyper bels this though is just the
18:54·sanest explanation further up the
18:56·weirdness scale You' get to what we like
18:58·likely be the most exciting outcome of
19:00·all that planet 9 is actually a
19:02·primordial black hole way back in 1971
19:05·Steven Hawking theorized how the extreme
19:07·environment created just after the big
19:09·bang could have created pockets of
19:11·matter so dense they collapsed into
19:13·black holes unlike regular black holes
19:15·which are born of collapsing Stars these
19:17·primordial versions could be anywhere in
19:18·the universe they could also be much
19:20·smaller beach ball siiz things with the
19:23·mass of a planet to date we've never
19:25·seen any evidence for these objects all
19:27·of which makes the idea that they might
19:29·be lurking out there on the edges of our
19:31·solar system immensely exciting aside
19:34·from proving Hawkings Theory such a
19:36·black hole would also be close enough
19:38·for us to potentially send a prob about
19:40·to study it something we likely won't
19:42·have the tech to do with regular black
19:43·holes for hundreds or even thousands of
19:45·years the downside of Planet 9 really
19:47·being a black hole is that it would be
19:49·insanely hard to detect aside from
19:51·giving off no light a primordial black
19:53·hole would also be small enough to fit
19:55·into a backpack rather than searching
19:58·for for a dropped marble in the midwest
19:59·this would be like searching for a
20:01·single grain of sand as a paper on fizz.
20:04·org noted this small size would make
20:07·gravitational lensing and gamma ray
20:08·emissions too faint to register once
20:10·again though the ver ruin Observatory
20:12·could well ride to the rescue here
20:14·according to a paper by RV lob and a
20:16·mere Sage small comets would ride into
20:18·the path of such a primordial black hole
20:20·at least a couple of times a year when
20:22·that happens they would be ripped apart
20:23·producing a momentary flash a Flash The
20:26·Observatory should be able to see as lob
20:27·told the new York Times quote our
20:29·calculations show that the flares will
20:31·be bright enough for the Vera rubben
20:33·Observatory to rule out or confirm
20:34·Planet 9 as a black hole within one year
20:37·of monitoring the sky currently regular
20:39·observations by the telescope are
20:41·expected to start in 2025 that means we
20:43·could have a definitive answer before
20:46·this video has even been up on YouTube
20:48·for 3 years there are other theories too
20:51·that planet 9 may actually be a clump of
20:52·dark matter that it could be the exposed
20:55·core of a world long ago destroyed but
20:57·time is running short and we need to
20:59·stop this video somewhere so that's how
21:01·things stand at the moment with a
21:02·mystery on the edge of our solar system
21:04·one that's bedeviled scientists for
21:06·seven years now and may do so for
21:08·several more years to come in a way this
21:10·makes our era an exciting time to be
21:12·alive an era when we may be standing on
21:15·the cusp of a great discovery one that
21:17·would capture the world's imagination in
21:18·a way unseen since Urban larier
21:21·accurately predicted Neptune's position
21:23·in the night sky on the other hand it
21:25·also makes this something of a
21:26·frustrating game no that there's a great
21:28·mystery out there waiting to be solved
21:30·one Future Folk will take for granted
21:32·but which for now at least remains
21:34·stubbornly out of our grasp what the
21:36·coming years will hold for the hunt for
21:38·Planet 9 remains to be seen but we feel
21:40·confident in saying that whatever
21:42·happens it will undoubtedly be a search
21:45·to remember

1 posted on 02/12/2024 6:49:13 AM PST by SunkenCiv
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]


2 posted on 02/12/2024 6:52:52 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

The rest of the Pluto keyword, sorted:

3 posted on 02/12/2024 6:53:58 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

no


4 posted on 02/12/2024 6:54:13 AM PST by devane617 (Discipline Is Reliable, Motivation Is Fleeting..)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: KevinDavis; annie laurie; Knitting A Conundrum; Viking2002; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Mmogamer; ...
· join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark ·
· post new topic · subscribe ·
Google news searches: exoplanet · exosolar · extrasolar ·
X-Planets
"To Pluto And Far Beyond" By David H. Levy, Parade, January 15, 2006 -- We don't have a dictionary definition yet that includes all the contingencies. In the wake of the new discovery, however, the International Astronomical Union has set up a group to develop a workable definition of planet. For our part, in consultation with several experienced planetary astronomers, Parade offers this definition: A planet is a body large enough that, when it formed, it condensed under its own gravity to be shaped like a sphere. It orbits a star directly and is not a moon of another planet.To Pluto -- And Far Beyond

5 posted on 02/12/2024 6:54:54 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: devane617

“Planet 9 this invisible world is currently only theoretical but since it was first proposed in 2016 evidence has been stacking up that it may be out there “

~~~~

Not true. Planet 10 (or planet x) was proposed back in the 1980s. There was an article in OMNI or astronomy magazine (I forget which) that proposed that they had measured some gravitational anomalies that can only be explained by the presence of another planet. They called it planet 10 then because pluto was still considered a planet at that time.


6 posted on 02/12/2024 6:58:19 AM PST by z3n (Kakistocracy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: z3n

But is this elusive Planet really a planet or is it another Celestial body?

You can see the question like that comes up , because Pluto had been called the ninth planet for so many decades , and then it was downgraded.

So perhaps another celestial object is out there , but is it really a planet?


7 posted on 02/12/2024 7:01:35 AM PST by Dilbert San Diego
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

Yes, but I just hope they don’t name it anything even close to the planet they call Uranus. Maybe instead name it swampbottom or something.


8 posted on 02/12/2024 7:06:21 AM PST by Bob434
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Bob434

Wormwood


9 posted on 02/12/2024 7:08:11 AM PST by spincaster
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

Just give back Pluto...and nobody gets hurt! ;)


10 posted on 02/12/2024 7:10:37 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have, 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust Post-Apocalyptic skill set. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv
It's Pluto.
11 posted on 02/12/2024 7:12:11 AM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear ( In a quaint alleyway, they graciously signaled for a vehicle on the main road to lead the way. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Bob434

And not one of these:

https://gamerant.com/best-iconic-fictional-planets-movies/

or Wakanda.


12 posted on 02/12/2024 7:16:18 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

13 posted on 02/12/2024 7:18:09 AM PST by DCBryan1 (Inter arma enim silent leges! - Cicero )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DCBryan1

egad, that would be terrible


14 posted on 02/12/2024 7:29:29 AM PST by BigFreakinToad (Remember the Biden Kitchen Fire of 2004)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Bob434

It will be names Aaliyah De’ Ja’ Quintha...


15 posted on 02/12/2024 7:46:12 AM PST by devane617 (Discipline Is Reliable, Motivation Is Fleeting..)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

3 biggest lies:

1. Epstein killed himself.

2. Pluto isn’t a planet.

3. The check is in the mail.


16 posted on 02/12/2024 7:50:16 AM PST by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s²)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Bob434
I think it's about time Goofy gets a celestial shout out...


17 posted on 02/12/2024 7:54:52 AM PST by Hatteras
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Hatteras

I second that suggestion. 😃


18 posted on 02/12/2024 7:56:31 AM PST by Bob434
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: DoodleBob

What the @$#%#! ya mean, you’re not sending the %@#$FDV check?!?


19 posted on 02/12/2024 8:04:25 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

Ah, I’m glad your priorities are straight!


20 posted on 02/12/2024 8:10:32 AM PST by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s²)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-25 next 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