Planet Nine's profile fleshed out

BBC ^ | 4/8/2916 | Paul Rincon

[JimSEA]

In January, researchers at Caltech in the US suggested a large, additional planet might be lurking in the icy outer reaches of the Solar System. Now, a team at the University of Bern in Switzerland has worked out what they say are upper and lower limits on how big, bright and cold it might be. The study has been accepted by the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. Prof Mike Brown and Dr Konstantin Batygin made their case for the existence of a ninth planet in our Solar System orbiting far beyond even the dwarf world Pluto. There are no direct observations of this much bigger object yet, but a search is now underway using the world's largest telescopes. The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) scientists based their findings on the way other far-flung objects are seen to move. This prompted the Bern team, Prof Christoph Mordasini and Esther Linder, to use computer simulations to work out basic characteristics for the hypothetical ninth planet. The Bern-based astrophysicists assumed that Planet Nine was a smaller version of Uranus and Neptune - a small ice giant with an envelope of hydrogen and helium.

[JimSEA]

Astrophysicists have outlined what Planet Nine might be like - if indeed it exists.

[Terabitten]

So let me get this right.

They haven’t seen it.

They’re not sure if it even exists.

But they’ve given us a fairly detailed breakdown of its composition?

[MtnClimber]

I read this article too. There may be a 9th planet as many have speculated, but so far the arguments seem weak to me.

[Paladin2]

"There are no direct observations of this much bigger object yet,"

Exciting, but, Well, get back to me when.....

[boycott]

So let me get this right.

They haven’t seen it.

They’re not sure if it even exists.

But they’ve given us a fairly detailed breakdown of its composition?

—

Yep. And probably caused by global warming.

[Vince Ferrer]

They modeled it, like global warming. Therefore it is science. And not just science, Science.

[faithhopecharity]

claim it for USA
and
send our politicians there ASAP

[Vermont Lt]

Just they did with Pluto they can “see” the evidence to a pretty big mass somewhere out there because of the gravity it exerts.

It will be interesting to see how this develops. If it has an orbit different than all of the other planets it could cause some disruption and it comes in towards the sun.

I hope it’s a few hundred years from now.

[libertylover]

Yeah, but how much do we have to pay them or we’re all gonna die?

[HiTech RedNeck]

Houston we’re in hot water here

[HiTech RedNeck]

(Ice at 2100 Kelvin, that’s 3300 Fahrenheit — I wonder if this thing has some awesome steam geysers)

[yarddog]

Pluto is still the ninth planer as far as I am concerned. Who gets to make that decision anyway?

That other one must be Kamino beyond the Rishi maze, where them cloners live.

[Talisker]

...most of its emission would be internal heat from the core. This would make Planet Nine more easily detectable at infrared wavelengths than through optical telescopes.

How lucky, then, that we just so happen to have the WISE infrared telescope in orbit.

And also isn't it interesting that the Vatican is running is own infrared observatory called, of all things, LUCIFER. Can't make this stuff up - gee, its almost like they're all expecting a very particular low light high heat object to appear in the sky...

[minnesota_bound]

This is what it looks like.
The Astrophysicists did not want to anyone to panic.
https://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/tx8tYYz6ME9cpAMIgEq9uUHVifs=/5x0:1872x1245/1280x854/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/48396147/starkillercrop.0.0.jpg

[driftless2]

[JimSEA]

I’m not by any means sure that they are accurate on this but “if” something exists at this distance, it would likely be composed as the illustration demonstrates as the “dust” ring around the early sun sorted itself out. Heavy elements close to the sun, lighter elements further out.

It will be interesting to follow this speculation.

[HiTech RedNeck]

The devil you say

[HiTech RedNeck]

Nobody is sure about the entire story. But getting something even close to what the earth is, is not easy, if the typical fate of water is these hot snowflakes.

[MtnClimber]

I know that gravity interactions can cause predictions of what is causing the interaction. But, as far as I know, only the Cassini space probe gravity interactions indicate the presence, which may be there. The planetary orbits do not indicate it yet as far as I understand. The 26 million year extinction cycle has caused theories that an outer eccentric orbiting planet, not yet discovered, is disrupting orbits of outer comets that sometimes collide with earth. It could be, but there could be other explanations.

Our solar system is not in the central disk of the Milky Way, but swings back and forth across the dense central disk roughly every 30 million years. I have been looking to see if there is correlation with galactic plane crossings and mass extinctions. So far no luck, but 30 million years and 26 million years may be measurement error, but is far too long for the orbit of a planet. There could be a 9th planet and they are looking with much better equipment. I am just not convinced there is enough evidence to say more than it could be.

[BwanaNdege]