Planet Nine: Is the search for this elusive world nearly over?

Live Science ^ | June 14, 2024 | Harry Baker

[SunkenCiv]

Scientists found that Sedna... had a weird orbit around the sun... hinted that another large mass in the outer solar system was gravitationally pulling on the miniworld...

Then, in a 2014 study, astronomers announced that they had detected... 2012 VP113, with an eccentric orbit similar to Sedna's... Since 2016, Brown, Batygin and others... have discovered even more eccentric TNOs — bringing the total to 13...

Planet Nine's composition is probably "most like Neptune," ... around 500 astronomical units away from the sun...

This far out, it could take between 5,000 and 10,000 years for Planet Nine to complete a single trip around the sun. Its orbit is probably highly elliptical... also likely does not orbit on the same plane as the rest of the planets...

Planet Nine's unusual orbit and extreme distance from the sun also raise the possibility that it could be a rogue planet... captured by the sun... However, Brown and Batygin believe Planet Nine likely formed alongside the other planets in the solar system...

Doubts about Planet Nine are rooted in alternative potential explanations ... an invisible giant disk of dust or a historic close encounter with a rogue planet... [or] that our model of gravity needs to be tweaked.

Others believe the apparent TNO kinks are simply an "observational bias," because it is easier to spot TNOs that are closer to Earth than more distant ones, Samantha Lawler, an astronomer at the University of Regina in Canada and a prominent critic of the Planet Nine hypothesis, told Live Science in an email...

In their most recent work, Brown and Batygin analyzed data from the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) at Haleakala Observatory in Hawaii and confidently ruled out around 78% of the suspected orbital pathway...

[metmom]

We already have one.

It’s called *Pluto*.

[telescope115]

Love that picture, lol!🤣

[Robert A Cook PE]

8<)

[Saintgermain]

I wonder if anyone gave it some thought that the trajectory of this peculiar planet may be 3600 years. Just wondering.

[Conan the Librarian]

For those who still think Pluto is a full planet, I suggest reading “How I Killed Pluto and Why It had it Coming” by Mike Brown, the guy who started the whole thing. It explains what happened and why Pluto was killed as a Planet.

For me, a Rose by any other name...

[Ed Condon]

They keep refering to “TNO”s in the text, with no reference to what it means. It stands for “trans-Neptunium objects”, thank you very much.

[BenLurkin]

No, thank you!

[SunkenCiv]

The demotion of Pluto was a political act by a supposedly scientific org, was a gratuitous and unnecessary action, carried out to belittle the US. IMHO of course. I'll stick with David Levy's view:

"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.

[SunkenCiv]

Sitchin was a fraud, if that’s what you’re asking.

[SunkenCiv]

Trans-Neptunian.

[SunkenCiv]

/bingo

And we’ve got more than nine, imho.

[BenLurkin]

Just ask the crew of the The Tulip...

[SunkenCiv]

Ah, you spotted this, "...or a historic close encounter with a rogue planet...", nice job! My first edit had almost 600 words, and it took three, four, maybe five tries to get it under the limit. But I wanted to keep that in. :^) Seems like a good enough pretext to make this a twofer topic.

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[metmom]

Agreed.

[SunkenCiv]

Alas, not close enough. :^)

Given the short duration of observed fluctuations to the orbits of outer gas giants, and the tiny size of Pluto, I've speculated for years that a large unknown will probably be found in an orbit more or less perpendicular to the ecliptic.

Harrington & Van Flandern posited a 2-to-5 Earth mass body which was subsequently/supposedly refuted by Voyager data (oh well) but a perpendicular orbit provides something of an alibi for their model. :^)

It also happens to imply an explanation for the odd Uranian system, which has a parent body with its rotational axis nearly in the ecliptic, but a system of moons which appear more 'normal' than the other gas giants.

By contrast, Neptune's moons are really screwy here and there, while the planet is relatively tranquil and workaday.

[Planet Nine: Alternative Hypotheses | Wikipedia]

[SunkenCiv]

Another pointless reply from you.

[SunkenCiv]

That ship is better than roses on the piano!

[SunkenCiv]

When I visited Antarctica I enjoyed watching that big arm that holds the Earth, it’s not visible from this hemisphere. :^)

[SunkenCiv]

“then Santa shouted, ‘no! no! Rudolph! The Schmitt house!”

[SunkenCiv]

It’s a nice-lookin’ planet, glad a probe got there in my lifetime.