I’ve heard about this a few times recently, at first I chalked it up to the old, but viral “Planet X or Planet 9 discovered” hoax that’s been made on multiple occasions, but there’s a variety of recent articles pointing to the possibility. I am aware that such news brings a lot of trafic (so money) to news outlets, so I was wondering if this was simple sensationalist news or something we’re actually proposing again?
I definitely remember learning about how unlikely it was for a **real** planet beyond the orbit of Neptune to exist. (Fairly) Modern calculations and observations were also pointing towards it not even being a possibility.
So what changed in the last year? What have we learnt, observed, discovered, calculated, etc.? Is this misinformation or an actual old scientific hypothesis that’s being reinvestigated again in light of recent and new data?
(Possibly used the wrong flair, but it kinda made sense.)
In: Physics
A 9th planet for our solar system has been a running theory for a long time. It’s a common solution for inconsistencies in the orbits of the planets. Outside of orbital variations and some associated math there is so far no proof of it. In other words we have yet to find a planet where it’s supposed to be.
The Orbital behavior of Neptune and objects beyond Neptune are the key evidence, there is something tugging on them.
There are alternative explanations for what could be doing this, but that hasn’t stopped astronomers from doing the math to try to locate such a planet.
Candidates include a tiny red dwarf star on a very distant orbit, meaning that the Sun would actually be a binary. It’s just so dim, and the orbit so long that we haven’t detected it yet.
The more common theory is that our solar system used to have at least 1 more gas giant and it was ejected onto a distant and very elliptical orbit.
Early computer models of the solar system seem to work better when there’s at least 1 more gas giant (and possibly several rocky super earths). It’s orbit would have been disturbed when Jupiter and Saturn migrated away from the Sun to their current distance causing this gas giant to be ejected.
It’s also theorized that it passes through our solar system on a regular basis (relatively speaking) and its disruption of the Kuiper Belt is what causes regular periods asteroid/comet bombardment.
This is all educated speculation though, eventually they’ll discover what’s causing the orbital fluctuations of Neptune and beyond. If it’s a 9th planet cool! if not, also cool!
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