Evidence of huge ninth planet found in solar system
Planet Nine is 10 times the mass of Earth and takes up to 20,000 years to orbit the Sun
By Sarah Knapton, Science Editor
6:28PM GMT 20 Jan 2016
Scientists have found evidence of a ninth planet in the solar system which is travelling on a bizarre elongated orbit.
The body, which has been dubbed ‘Planet Nine’ is 10 times the mass of Earth and takes between 10,000 and 20,000 years to orbit the Sun. It is so big that researchers have branded it ‘the most planety planet of the solar system.’
It was found by researchers at the California Institute of Technology who were puzzled as to why 13 objects in the Kuiper Belt – an area beyond Pluto – were all moving together as if being ‘lassooed’ by the gravity of a huge object.
"If it exists, it should be detectable. So we must wait until searches with big telescopes have been carried out.”
Prof Sir Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal
After running computer simulations to see what was having an effect they found that only a massive planet could be causing the strange movement.
The Astronomer Royal Prof Sir Martin Rees said that telescopes should be able to see the planet.
"If it exists, it should be detectable,” said Prof Rees. “So we must wait until searches with big telescopes have been carried out.
“These are indirect arguments, but they should motivate a more intensive search for an inferred far-away planet.”
The orbit of Planet Nine The orbit of Planet Nine
Researcher Dr Mike Brown who discovered evidence for the planet with Dr Konstantin Batygin said that it is so large that there should be no debate about whether it is a true planet.
Unlike the class of smaller objects now known as dwarf planets, Planet Nine gravitationally dominates its neighborhood of the solar system – one of the key tests for planet classification.
Pluto used to be regarded as the ninth planet but was downgraded in 2006 to a dwarf-planet or ‘plutoid’ and is now known unceremoniously as ‘asteroid number 134340.’
In fact, it dominates a region larger than any of the other known planets--a fact that Brown says makes it "the most planet-y of the planets in the whole solar system."
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"This would be a real ninth planet," says Dr Brown, the Richard and Barbara Rosenberg Professor of Planetary Astronomy.
"There have only been two true planets discovered since ancient times, and this would be a third. It's a pretty substantial chunk of our solar system that's still out there to be found, which is pretty exciting."
"Although we were initially quite skeptical that this planet could exist, as we continued to investigate its orbit and what it would mean for the outer solar system, we become increasingly convinced that it is out there," added Dr Batygin, an assistant professor of planetary science.
"For the first time in over 150 years, there is solid evidence that the solar system's planetary census is incomplete."
The closest ever picture of Pluto taken by Nasa as it approached the new 'red planet'The closest ever picture of Pluto taken by Nasa as it approached the new 'red planet'
Dr Robert Massey, of the Royal Astronomical Society, said the planet would be cold and dark.
“It’s a very long way away and our Sun would appear as a very bright start in the sky,” he said. “It would be like walking in bright moonlight if it had a surface where you could walk around and see the landscape.
“If it is out there we should now be able to point our telescopes to where it should be and see it. It’s far away but then it’s very big, and we can see objects which are closer but smaller.
“If it does turn out to exist it would expand our knowledge of the solar system and make us question whether there is anything even further out.”
Dr Brown and other colleagues have begun searching the skies for Planet Nine. Only the planet’s rough orbit is known, not the precise location of the planet on that elliptical path. If the planet happens to be close to its perihelion, Dr Brown says, astronomers should be able to spot it in images captured by previous surveys.
If it is in the most distant part of its orbit, the world’s largest telescopes -- such as the twin 10-meter telescopes at the W. M. Keck Observatory and the Subaru Telescope, all on Maunakea in Hawaii -- will be needed to see it. If, however, Planet Nine is now located anywhere in between, many telescopes have a shot at finding it.
“I would love to find it,” said Dr Brown. “But I’d also be perfectly happy if someone else found it. That is why we’re publishing this paper. We hope that other people are going to get inspired and start searching.”
The Caltech team reported their findings in the current issue of the Astronical Journal.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/space/12111353/Evidence-of-huge-ninth-planet-found-in-solar-system.html
