Posted on 05/21/2018 2:30:59 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The solar system just got a bit stranger. As astronomers continue their ongoing quest to find the elusive Planet Nine, a team found a space rock that lends credence to the idea that a huge super-Earth planet really exists in the outer reaches of our solar system.
The newfound asteroid, called 2015 BP519, adds to a growing body of evidence about little worlds in the solar system being perturbed by something big. Astronomers detailed its discovery and description in a new paper, adding that its bizarre angle of its orbit gives more weight to the idea that a big planet is out there somewhere tugging on the asteroid's path around the sun.
"We also consider the long term orbital stability and evolutionary behavior within the context of the Planet Nine hypothesis, and find that 2015 BP519 adds to the circumstantial evidence for the existence of this proposed new member of the solar system," read the abstract of the paper, which is available now on preprint website Arxiv and has been submitted to The Astronomical Journal. [How Astronomers Could Actually See 'Planet Nine']
Following up on the discovery, Quanta Magazine recently published an articlesurveying several astrophysicists who specialize in studying small worlds, including the discoverers of 2015 BP519. While not everybody agreed that Planet Nine was responsible for the strange orbit, the overwhelming majority agreed the new discovery gives more credence to the idea. "The second you put Planet Nine in the simulations, not only can you form objects like this object, but you absolutely do," lead author Juliette Becker, a graduate student at the University of Michigan, told Quanta. (You can look at the object's orbit online here.)
The solar system just got a bit stranger....
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
When I was growing up, we HAD 9 planets. As far as I am concerned, we still do.
My
Very
Educated
Mother
Just
Served
Us
Nine
Pizza Pies
:)
I found it!
New movie: Plan 9 from Planet Nine from Outer Space.
I learned that they were called
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto
Who taught you those names? :-P
Yep, and what they call Planet 9 now was what we called Planet X back then.
It’s a small world after all.......................
Run away, run away!
Everybody knows that Planet X blew up and left behind the asteroid belt.
It was in the movies.
*ping*
So we can “see” asteroids the size of a school bus way out there, but can’t be sure about a whole freakin’ PLANET? Gimmie a break!
So, it was Planet 9 from outer space, not Plan 9.
I found some kind of weird space rock the other day.
Turns out it was an old tennis shoe.
I think it made the moon move.
Planet X really means Planet 10. Back during the search for Pluto, Ceres was considered a planet. Later it was classified an asteroid. Now it’s classified as a dwarf planet, same as Pluto.
Elizabeth is from Planet Claire.
Yes, I know the history, and roman numerals. I just think its all kind of funny how things change and still stay the same.
Thanks 2ndDivisionVet. Also pingin' X-Planets.
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Whoops! Thanks fieldmarshaldj.
And it’s likely to repeat itself even further. If they find this 9th planet, they’ll probably have to reclassify it again as a dwarf planet, even though it’s bigger than Earth. The reason: like Pluto, it has probably not cleared its orbit, being such an eccentric one.
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