More Evidence for Ninth Planet on Solar System's Fringes

by Daniel Stolte, University Communications Oct. 21, 2016

As the search for a hypothetical, unseen planet far beyond Neptune's orbit continues, research by a University of Arizona team provides additional support for the possible existence of such a world and narrows the range of its parameters and location.

Led by Renu Malhotra, a Regents' Professor of Planetary Sciences in the UA's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, the team found that the four Kuiper Belt Objects with the longest known orbital periods revolve around the sun in patterns most readily explained by the presence of a hypothetical "Planet Nine" approximately 10 times the mass of Earth. Malhotra presented the results at the 48th meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society in Pasadena, California.

According to the researchers' calculations, such a hypothetical planet would complete one orbit around the sun about every 17,000 years and, at its farthest point from our central star, it would swing out more than 660 astronomical units, with one AU being the average distance between the Earth and the sun.

Scientists think that objects in the Kuiper Belt, a vast region of dwarf planets and icy rocks populating the fringes of our solar system beyond the orbit of Neptune, dance mostly to the tune of the giant planets — Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune — and are influenced by their gravity either directly or indirectly.

However, there are a few known Kuiper Belt objects, or KBOs, that are unlikely to be significantly perturbed by the known giant planets in their current orbits. Referred to as "extreme KBOs," or eKBOs, by the authors, all of these have extremely large orbital eccentricities. In other words, they get very close to the sun at one point on their orbital journey, only to swing far out into space once they pass the sun, on long elliptical orbits that take these strange mini-worlds hundreds of AUs away from the sun.

"We analyzed the data of these most distant Kuiper Belt Objects," Malhotra said, "and noticed something peculiar, suggesting they were in some kind of resonances with an unseen planet."
...

uanews.arizona.edu...

A group of planetary scientists led by Renu Malhotra found that the four Kuiper Belt Objects with the longest known orbital periods, revolve around the sun in patterns that are most readily explained by a large, yet unseen hypothetical planet in the solar system. This planet would be approximately 10 Earth masses, the elusive and hypothetical planet 9, or planet X.

According to the researcher's calculations this planet would complete one orbit around the sun every 17,000 years. At it's farthest point from our Sun this enigmatic, and hypothetical planet would swing away from our sun more than 660 astronomical units. One AU being the average distance between the Earth and the Sun.

Prof. Malhotra states that the analyzed data suggests that the most distant Kuiper Belt Objects are in some kind of resonances with an unseen planet.

The findings of this group of planetary scientists further bolsters the research done by other planetary researchers who have reached similar conclusions about the existence of the hypothetical planet.

Although the researchers stipulate that their research provides more support for the existence of planet 9, they stress that their paper shouldn't be considered as definitive proof, but that further observations and studies could help test the case for the existence of this hypothetical planet.

We do seem to be getting more and more evidence that this planet seems to exist, but after we find conclusive proof of the existence of this planet, another question remains. How would such a large planet be in the outer reaches of our solar system without a massive dead companion star keeping it in place?


Below is further research on this elusive, and hypothetical planet.

CORRALLING A DISTANT PLANET WITH EXTREME RESONANT KUIPER BELT OBJECTS

COSMOLOGISTS IN SEARCH OF PLANET NINE: THE CASE FOR CMB EXPERIMENTS

Preliminary constraints on the location of Telisto/Planet Nine from planetary orbital dynamics

Observational Constraints on Planet Nine: Cassini Range Observations

A theoretical dynamical limit of planet X's mass based on its perturbations on Uranus and Neptune

Observational Constraints on Planet Nine: Astrometry of Pluto and Other Trans-Neptunian Objects

Observational constraints on the orbit and location of Planet Nine in the outer solar system

EVIDENCE FOR A DISTANT GIANT PLANET IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM

Konstantin Batygin1 and Michael E. Brown1

Published 2016 January 20 • © 2016. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.

Abstract

Recent analyses have shown that distant orbits within the scattered disk population of the Kuiper Belt exhibit an unexpected clustering in their respective arguments of perihelion. While several hypotheses have been put forward to explain this alignment, to date, a theoretical model that can successfully account for the observations remains elusive. In this work we show that the orbits of distant Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) cluster not only in argument of perihelion, but also in physical space. We demonstrate that the perihelion positions and orbital planes of the objects are tightly confined and that such a clustering has only a probability of 0.007% to be due to chance, thus requiring a dynamical origin. We find that the observed orbital alignment can be maintained by a distant eccentric planet with mass gsim10 m⊕ whose orbit lies in approximately the same plane as those of the distant KBOs, but whose perihelion is 180° away from the perihelia of the minor bodies. In addition to accounting for the observed orbital alignment, the existence of such a planet naturally explains the presence of high-perihelion Sedna-like objects, as well as the known collection of high semimajor axis objects with inclinations between 60° and 150° whose origin was previously unclear. Continued analysis of both distant and highly inclined outer solar system objects provides the opportunity for testing our hypothesis as well as further constraining the orbital elements and mass of the distant planet.

EVIDENCE FOR A DISTANT GIANT PLANET IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM


Extreme trans-Neptunian objects and the Kozai mechanism: signalling the presence of trans-Plutonian planets

The observation of large semi-major axis Centaurs: Testing for the signature of a planetary-mass solar companion

Finding Planet Nine: a Monte Carlo approach

a reply to: ElectricUniverse

I hope you're right... going home totally appeals to me right now

We will know for sure in 2018 when The James Webb Space Telescope is launched.

The planet will light up like a Christmas tree in IR and any other object or "dead star" (Heh...) will also do the same, it will be a most interesting time.

Oh please allow that launch to go off without a problem, it's capable of seeing just over 210Million years from the big bang.

What a monumental discovery this will be when it happens. Yes, I said "will", because I am totally convinced that this planet exists. Discovering Kuiper Belt objects (even one the size of Eris) is impressive enough, but the discovery of another major planet in the Solar System would outshine all of the other discoveries put together.

would be amazing to find another planet.. And if so.. Let's hope it is more interesting than the rocks and balls of gas we currently know about in our solar system.

Please excuse my ignorance but is this the theoretical planet called Nibiru?

a reply to: ElectricUniverse

I too am looking forward to seeing what comes of this potential discovery.

I am also somewhat torn. I find the idea of an as yet undiscovered object enticing of course, but I also find it interesting to consider what other explanations might be given for the behaviour of the Kuiper Belt Objects, whose orbits perturbations have lead to this line of thinking.

660 AU at the farthest point, but how far at the closest point to the Sun?

originally posted by: Cinrad
660 AU at the farthest point, but how far at the closest point to the Sun?

It looks like it's the same one that's been talked about a lot this year. The closest is estimated at 200au.

To put that into perspective, Pluto is about 40au from the sun.

originally posted by: Kalixi
Please excuse my ignorance but is this the theoretical planet called Nibiru?

No. it cannot be the mythical planet people call Nibiru. Nibiru exists in myth only, and (according to the myth) has an orbit that brings it through the inner solar system and relatively close to Earth. If this new "Planet Nine" exists, it orbits way way out, dozens of times farther out than Pluto. it never comes into the inner solar system.

The reason that this can't be Nibiru, and the reason they know this object never comes into the inner solar system is the same reason that this planet is thought to exist in the first place....

...That is, the reason astronomers think this planet exists is because of oddities in the orbits of some Kuiper belt objects (the Kuiper belt being the area of space from Pluto and outward in which a bunch of Pluto-like objects and smaller asteroids orbit). Many of these objects are have obits that are skewed far from the sun all on one side of the sun. This tells astronomers that there may be another large object out there causing these orbital oddities.

Now, if this object were to come into the inner solar system (like Nibiru allegedly does), then we would be able to see the effects of that in the orbits of the inner planets -- i.e., the inner planets do not have the same kinds of oddities in their orbits as seen in the Kuiper Belt objects.

That's why I say "the reason they know this object never comes into the inner solar system is the same reason that this planet is thought to exist in the first place". So, no -- it can't be Nibiru.

a reply to: Soylent Green Is People

Perfectly stated.

Well played.

Nibiru is nothing more than a fantasy, as far as science can make out at the moment, and since science is the only method of weighing and measuring the universe and the things in it, without relying on anything too esoteric to quantify meaningfully, I have to err on its side where the existence of such a thing as Nibiru is concerned.

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People

Now, if this object were to come into the inner solar system (like Nibiru allegedly does), then we would be able to see the effects of that in the orbits of the inner planets -- i.e., the inner planets do not have the same kinds of oddities in their orbits as seen in the Kuiper Belt objects.

Indeed it would, it'd be similar to a sumo wrestler barging into a group of people, the gravitation effects would cause a massive scatter and upset of kupier belt objects, long age comets, asteroids, nearly everything in its path, its victims paths and so on and so on, and if it were as close to the earth/sun as they say the tidal effects etc...my god it would be horrific long before we ever knew it was coming; imagine the effects that a lone planet with a dark companion star and a ring of objects would cause...

Then again, we got a member who enjoys bringing us photos of clouds, that's nice, however it would be nicer if he lived in a nice mountain region to give us a better landscape photos.

originally posted by: Cinrad
660 AU at the farthest point, but how far at the closest point to the Sun?

That is the right question.

double post.

See below.

double double post post.

See below.

originally posted by: bluesjr

originally posted by: Cinrad
660 AU at the farthest point, but how far at the closest point to the Sun?

That is the right question.

And the answer is almost 7 times farther away than Pluto is from the sun at Pluto's closest approach. Pluto is 30 AU at its closest approach, and this hypothesized planet's orbit is 200 AU at its closest approach.

This potential planet will be way out there, which is one reason why (if it exists) it is proving difficult to observe. Another thing making it difficult is that one of the places it might be would have one of the densest parts of the background sky behind it, in which case it would blend in with the background stars. Given that it is so far out, that means it moves at a very small apparent speed when seen from Earth, making its presence difficult to discern against visual background noise.

As I mentioned in another post above, the very same method being used to postulate that this object exists in the first place is the same method astronomers can use to know that its orbit CANNOT bring it in close to the Sun and the inner solar system. If its orbit did bring it close, then the same orbital oddities seen in the Kuiper belt objects (orbital oddities that may be predicting this planet's presence) would be seen in the orbits of the rest of the solar system's planets -- and no such oddities have been detected.

a reply to: Soylent Green Is People
I wonder why WISE hasn't spotted it, or whether it's somewhere there in WISE data but just needs finding.

I think the Spitzer should do an all-sky survey, we might then definitely discover Planet 9, along with perhaps some very tiny and very cool brown dwarfs nearby.

a reply to: wildespace

WISE data has been pored over, extensively by researchers to see if they could spot the planet in the data, and as of yet, nothing has appeared. Combining this data with other sky surveys, has lead some researchers on the subject to believe that the planet is currently around 500au distant, and probably passing through an area of space, the backdrop of which is the bright and confounding Milky Way. But those data sets have not revealed its location with any more precision than that, and certainly no imaging apparatus has detected it directly.

I say confounding, because if the planet is indeed in the patch of sky which is back lit by the Milky Way, then most of the equipment we can point at the sky and find things with, will fail to spot it amongst the plethora of much brighter objects behind it, despite the difference in distance.

This is because contrast is a problem at this range. To capture enough light in any one moment, to detect the reflected light from Planet Nine, it is necessary for our machinery to operate at very high sensitivity. This is fine when one is pointing the apparatus at a dark patch of sky, with relatively few bright points anywhere in field of view. However, when pointing it at a diamond scattered patch such as that which it is believed the planet is in at the moment, finding the dim light of planet nine is impossible, because the light from the Milky Way washes it out.

Imagine for a moment, that you have a camera, set to its highest sensitivity, and you have, for some reason, pointed it at the Sun. Imagine also, that you have suspended a flashlight of some kind, between the camera and the Sun, at a distance of a mile or so. When you take the shot, would you expect to register the flashlight against the back drop of the Sun? I would posit that you would not expect that, and would be disappointed if you did.

For pretty much the same reason, it will be next door to impossible to resolve the light reflected from Planet Nine, against the back drop of the Milky Way. Now, it is worth pointing out, that this planet is rumoured to have an orbit which takes, unless my memory fails me utterly, 17,000 years to complete. That means that it will take a significant time for it to move out of the area of sky it is in, and it may be necessary for us to wait a while therefore, before we can actually image the thing.

Dave Greg aka dazzathecameraman just posted this video, sharing his thoughts on Nibiru/Planet X/Planet Nine: www.youtube.com...

Dave is like the Phil Plait of Youtube and Facebook, and gives rational, scientificly-minded view on conspiracy theories regarding space and astronomy.



Little snippet:

"So is there a Planet X or not?" If you mean a brown dwarf or rogue planet passing through our solar system, visible on webcams and mobile phone cams etc, and affecting the Earth and the other planets, then no, definitely not. If you mean a large planet waaaaaaaay beyond the orbit of Neptune, then quite possibly. We are discovering new minor planets and other objects, even exoplanets, all the time, thanks to improved space telescopes and new technologies.

"Planet Nine" as it has been dubbed, is a hypothetical planet that may exist in the very far reaches of our solar system, waaaaay beyond the orbit of Neptune and Pluto. The two researchers, Brown and Batygin have said that if their hypothetical Planet Nine exists, its orbit would bring it no closer than 200 AU from our Sun, which is 200 times the distance between the Sun and Earth, or 30 billion km.

This thread was closed as being the same as yours but the object is not the same one?
www.abovetopsecret.com...
L91

An icy planet with a staggering 20,000-year orbit has been discovered passing through our solar system, leading to the re-emergence of theories touting the existence of the fabled and mystical Planet 9.
L91, as the icy rock is called, is an enigma defying previously established gravitational patterns, and its discovery has added to mounting evidence that there are gravitational disruptions going on beyond what we can see, according to scientists working on the Outer Solar System Origins Survey.

Although L91 orbits our solar system’s sun, it never comes closer than 50 astronomical units, and at its farthest extreme it is a whopping 1,430 AU away. Each AU equals the distance between the Sun and Earth.

www.rt.com...