Strong Evidence Suggests a Super Earth Lies beyond Pluto

[OrbitalDawn]

Astronomers have found compelling hints of a huge, unseen world that may reside in the murky reaches of the Kuiper Belt

“New Planet Found” is about as exciting a headline nowadays as “Dog Bites Man,” which is to say, not very. Thanks largely to the space-based Kepler Mission, astronomers have identified about 2,000 new worlds, orbiting stars that lie tens or even hundreds of light-years from Earth, in the last two decades. Collectively, these are scientifically important, but with so many in hand no single addition to the list is likely to be much of a big deal. But a new planet announcement today from the California Institute of Technology is a very different proposition, because the world it describes does not circle a distant star. It is part of our own solar system—a place you would think we had explored pretty well by now.

Evidently not: in an analysis accepted for publication at The Astronomical Journal, California Institute of Technology planetary scientists Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown present what they say is strong circumstantial evidence for a very large undiscovered planet, perhaps 10 times as massive as Earth, orbiting in the solar system’s outer darkness beyond Pluto. The scientists infer its presence from anomalies in the orbits of a handful of smaller bodies they can see. “I haven’t been this excited about something in quite a while,” says Greg Laughlin, an expert on planet formation and dynamics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who was not involved in the research.

The object, which the researchers have provisionally named “Planet Nine,” comes no closer than 30.5 billion or so kilometers from the sun, or five times farther than Pluto’s average distance. Despite its enormous size, it would be so dim, the authors say, that it is unsurprising that nobody has spotted it yet.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

Ninth Planet May Exist in Solar System Beyond Pluto, Scientists Report

There might be a ninth planet in the solar system after all — and it is not Pluto.

Two astronomers reported on Wednesday that they had compelling signs of something bigger and farther away — something that would definitely satisfy the current definition of a planet, where Pluto falls short.

“We are pretty sure there’s one out there,” said Michael E. Brown, a professor of planetary astronomy at the California Institute of Technology.

What Dr. Brown and a fellow Caltech professor, Konstantin Batygin, have not done is actually find that planet, so it would be premature to revise mnemonics of the planets just yet.

Rather, in a paper published Wednesday in The Astronomical Journal, Dr. Brown and Dr. Batygin lay out a detailed circumstantial argument for the planet’s existence in what astronomers have observed — a half-dozen small bodies in distant, highly elliptical orbits.

What is striking, the scientists said, is that the orbits of all six loop outward in the same quadrant of the solar system and are tilted at about the same angle. The odds of that happening by chance are about 1 in 14,000, Dr. Batygin said.

 

[The_Librarian]

Dang, they found my hideout!

 

[Kornhub]

Dang, they found my hideout!

Not another banana republic silly

 

[Arthur]

"Super Earth"? Impossible. Too far from the sun.

Large planet? Of course quite possible.

 

[Dave]

"Super Earth"? Impossible. Too far from the sun.

Large planet? Of course quite possible.

I was just going to say that, completely wrong to use the word Earth in the title. It'll be nothing like Earth, it will probably be either a gas giant or frozen rock.

 

[HeftyCrab]

Always "strong evidence" or "possibly". Call me when they have actually found such a planet and sent probes there to verify it. Untill then STFU. Every two weeks its the same thing.

 

[Drifter]

It's a Death Star. The Aliens are coming.

 

[Aquila ka Hecate]

Well, well.

Let's just sit tight a bit and see, shall we?

At the moment, my biggest concern is the signal-boost this is giving the Nibiru freaks.

 

[ShaunSA]

It's killa's Nibanitsu!

Run for your lives!

 

[LazyLion]

But is it also flat, like earth?

 

[Necropolis]

At the moment, my biggest concern is the signal-boost this is giving the Nibiru freaks.

Ahahaha yeah - was thinking the same thing!

 

[Arthur]

But is it also flat, like earth?

Of course earth is round. Round like a plate.

 

[superskully]

But is it also flat, like earth?

:wtf:

 

[Solarion]

But is it also flat, like earth?

It's only flat on one side. Underneath it's round. If you fall over the edge you'll simply be standing on a giant breast.

 

[Unhappy438]

"Super Earth"? Impossible. Too far from the sun.

Large planet? Of course quite possible.

Came here to say this.

 

[Solarion]

Also 10 times the gravity of Earth. When you step out of the space ship you'll weight just under a ton. Splat.

 

[AfricanTech]

Meh, so slow.

Stan Lee found Earth Prime yoinks ago

 

[Nick333]

"Super Earth"? Impossible. Too far from the sun.

Large planet? Of course quite possible.

I was just going to say that, completely wrong to use the word Earth in the title. It'll be nothing like Earth, it will probably be either a gas giant or frozen rock.

Wrong use of the name super-earth actually. But only in the sense that the new plant is in our solar system.

A super-Earth is an extrasolar planet with a mass higher than Earth's, but substantially below the mass of the Solar System's ice giants Uranus and Neptune, which are 15 and 17 Earth masses respectively.[1] The term super-Earth refers only to the mass of the planet, and does not imply anything about the surface conditions or habitability. The alternative term "gas dwarfs" may be more accurate for those at the higher end of the mass scale, as suggested by MIT professor Sara Seager, although mini-Neptunes is more common.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super-Earth

 

[Dave]

But is it also flat, like earth?

Don't just don't

The flat earth society will invade this thread and turn it into the same wasteland as the last one c