New evidence in support of the Planet Nine hypothesis

[Binary_Bark]

Last year, astronomers announced the existence of an unknown planet in our solar system. However, this hypothesis was subsequently called into question as biases in the observational data were detected. Now, Spanish astronomers have used a novel technique to analyse the orbits of the so-called extreme trans-Neptunian objects and, once again, they report that there is something perturbing them—a planet located at a distance between 300 to 400 times the Earth-sun distance.
At the beginning of 2016, researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech, USA) announced that they had evidence of the existence of this object, located at an average distance of 700 AU and with a mass 10 times that of the Earth. Their calculations were motivated by the peculiar distribution of the orbits found for the trans-Neptunian objects (TNO) in the Kuiper belt, which suggested the presence of a Planet Nine within the solar system.
However, scientists from the Canadian-French-Hawaiian project OSSOS detected biases in their own observations of the orbits of the TNOs, which had been systematically directed towards the same regions of the sky, and considered that other groups, including the Caltech group, may be experiencing the same issues. According to these scientists, it is not necessary to propose the existence of a massive perturber to explain these observations, as they are compatible with a random distribution of orbits.
Now, however, two astronomers from the Complutense University of Madrid have applied a new technique less exposed to observational bias to study the so-called "extreme trans-Neptunian objects" (ETNOs)—located at average distances greater than 150 AU, and which never cross Neptune's orbit. For the first time, the distances from their nodes to the sun have been analysed, and the results, published in the journal MNRAS, once again indicate a planet beyond Pluto.
The nodes are the two points at which the orbit of an ETNO, or any other celestial body, crosses the plane of the solar system. These are the precise points where the probability of interacting with other objects is the highest, and therefore, at these points, the ETNOs may experience a drastic change in their orbits or even a collision.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-07-evidence-planet-hypothesis.html#jCp

 

[saor]

Whenever I hear about this it strikes me as almost unbelievable that we haven't yet properly mapped out our solar system; that there's still uncertainty about what's there.

 

[LazyLion]

Whenever I hear about this it strikes me as almost unbelievable that we haven't yet properly mapped out our solar system; that there's still uncertainty about what's there.

It's a very, very big place. Bigger than your back yard.

 

[durbandave]

Whenever I hear about this it strikes me as almost unbelievable that we haven't yet properly mapped out our solar system; that there's still uncertainty about what's there.

There are still many aspects of our own planet which very little is known about. The extreme Ocean depths are an example. So not that unbelievable that our solar system has not been fully mapped. As technology gets better, I guess the more we will discover.

 

[ShaunSA]

It's killa's Nebbacanitsu

 

[Binary_Bark]

Evidence Mounts for the Existence of Planet Nine

In January of 2016, astronomers Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin published the first evidence that there might be another planet in our Solar System. Known as “Planet 9”, this hypothetical body was estimated to be about 10 times as massive as Earth and to orbit that our Sun at an average distance of 700 AU. Since that time, multiple studies have been produced that either support or cast doubt on the existence of Planet 9.

While some argue that the orbits of certain Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) are proof of Planet 9, others argue that these studies suffer from an observational bias. The latest study, which comes from a pair of astronomers from the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), offers a fresh perspective that could settle the debate. Using a new technique that focuses on extreme TNOs (ETNOs), they believe the case for Planet 9 can be made.

Extreme Trans-Neptunian Objects are those that orbit our Sun at average distances greater than 150 AU, and therefore never cross Neptune’s orbit. As the UMC team indicate in their study, which was recently published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the distances between the ETNOs nodes and the Sun may point the way towards Planet 9.

Read More At: https://www.universetoday.com/136450/evidence-mounts-existence-planet-nine/