A Massive New Planet Lurking On The Edge Of Our Solar System?
When we think of our solar system, we typically imagine the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, with the possible exclusion of Pluto. There are eight planets, and these facts have been known for hundreds of years.
What if there were a ninth planet? A planet hiding on the very edges of what we consider the solar system? A recent study published on January 20th of this year by two Caltech astronomers has provided evidence of a large planet orbiting the sun far out in the reaches of space.
While we do not have direct visual evidence of the existence of this new mystery planet, researchers Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin were able to detect it through the irregular orbital patterns of several objects in the Kuiper Belt, a collection of icy objects just outside the orbit of Neptune. In fact, the evidence for the existence of this planet is so certain that there is only a 0.007% chance that these gravitational anomalies are due to a coincidence.
Image: Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC); An artist’s conceptual drawing of “Planet Nine”
This “Planet Nine” is supposedly massive and contains about 10 times the mass of the Earth. According to the researchers who discovered it, our mystery planet is said to have a composition similar to Neptune, which means it is mostly composed of hydrogen and helium. In other words, if we ever travelled to this planet, we wouldn’t have anything to stand on! As a gas giant, the atmosphere would simply become denser and denser as we travel deeper into the planet.
The reason we haven’t yet spotted this planet through conventional telescopes is that it is extremely far away, and thus extremely dim. Whether or not we can spot this planet from telescopes is still doubtful, but with the knowledge of the orbital path of the planet, researchers might be able to visually detect it.
Image: (DATA) JPL; BATYGIN AND BROWN/CALTECH; (DIAGRAM) A. CUADRA/SCIENCE
In this image, the orange ellipse shows the orbit of “Planet Nine”, which is far outside the bounds of what we would normally consider our solar system. At an estimated distance of 600 AU (Astronomical Units, or the distance from the Earth to the Sun) to 1200 AU from the Sun, our mystery planet only orbits the sun once every 20,000 years. For comparison, Pluto, one of the furthest objects in our solar system, is only 40 AU from the Sun. Our furthest probe, Voyager 1, which was launched nearly 40 years ago, is only about 130 AU away from the Sun.
While “Planet Nine” is certainly very fascinating, it is doubtful that we will ever be able to physically reach it. Even if Voyager 1 were pointed directly at the orbital path of the planet, it would not arrive within our lifetime. Hopefully, future advances in propulsion will enable us to investigate planets like these and solve the many mysteries of our solar system.
Trent You
