Scientists find evidence for a ninth planet.

[Jodell88]

A planet larger than Earth could be hiding in the cold, dark depths of the solar system. The presence of the planet, which would lie far beyond Pluto, is betrayed by the curious orbits of a handful of distant icy worlds.

As described Wednesday in the Astronomical Journal, the gravitational signature of a large, lurking planet is written into the peculiar orbits of these farflung worlds. Called extreme Kuiper Belt Objects, the misbehaving bodies trace odd circles around the sun that have puzzled scientists for years.

It’s tantalizing evidence that a ninth large planet might live in the solar system, though the world hasn’t been detected yet.

“If there’s going to be another planet in the solar system, I think this is it,” says Greg Laughlin of the University of California, Santa Cruz. “It would be quite extraordinary if we had one. Fingers crossed. It would be amazing.”

The team calculated that the planet, if it’s there, would be about 10 times as massive as Earth, or roughly three times larger. That makes it a super-Earth or mini-Neptune—a type of planet the galaxy is incredibly efficient at assembling, but which has been conspicuously absent from our own neighborhood.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...s-newplanet&utm_campaign=Content&sf19289155=1

It will be very cool if it was proven to exist in my lifetime.

 

[dainthomas]

And yet regardless of mass, if it hasn't cleared it's orbit it won't officially be a planet according to the bogus rule that demoted Pluto.

 

[Ichinisan]

I'm gonna go check out this planet after I get off from work. Hope there's not too much traffic on the way there. Might take me a few hundred years.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

 

[Jodell88]

Hope there's not too much traffic on the way there. Might take me a few thousand years.

ftfy

 

[vi edit]

Pluto. #Never forget#

 

[ImpulsE69]

Doesn't this theory come out like every year? I know I've heard this multiple times before.

 

[William Gaatjes]

I remember some kind of zeitgeist type people predicted once a decade ago that a ninth planet exist and that the bloodsucking reptile people come from that planet...

David Icke might be right :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Icke

 

[Printer Bandit]

Nibiru

 

[Jeff7]

We already know how to build a New Horizons. Build another one, for a quick overview, and blast it out there at full speed for a fast flyby. :awe:

Doesn't this theory come out like every year? I know I've heard this multiple times before.

Those are usually accompanied with "The apocalypse NASA doesn't want you to know about! Send us money!"

 

[Ichinisan]

And yet regardless of mass, if it hasn't cleared it's orbit it won't officially be a planet according to the bogus rule that demoted Pluto.

I wonder if it has made even one trip around the sun since it formed...

 

[Ichinisan]

ftfy

I drive fast.

 

[Ichinisan]

We already know how to build a New Horizons. Build another one, for a quick overview, and blast it out there at full speed for a fast flyby. :awe:



Those are usually accompanied with "The apocalypse NASA doesn't want you to know about! Send us money!"

It took a perfect configuration of planets and timing to slingshot the way it did. We wouldn't be so fortunate for this new target we don't know anything about that might not even exist.

 

[Schmide]

Planet X? Finally we will get our rack-and-pinion molecule needed for yo-yo polish.

 

[tynopik]

And yet regardless of mass, if it hasn't cleared it's orbit it won't officially be a planet according to the bogus rule that demoted Pluto.

well,

Planet Nine gravitationally dominates its neighborhood of the solar system. In fact, it dominates a region larger than any of the other known planets—a fact that Brown says makes it "the most planet-y of the planets in the whole solar system."

 

[blankslate]

what if it is the home of Ming the Merciless?

__________________

 

[dainthomas]

well,

Are we seriously expected to actually read the article?

 

[Ken g6]

We already know how to build a New Horizons. Build another one, for a quick overview, and blast it out there at full speed for a fast flyby. :awe:

Pluto was roughly 30AU away when we sent New Horizons. This new planet would be between 200 and 1200AU away! At the farthest possible distance it would take light (and radio) a week to reach us!

New Horizons took 9.5 years to go 30AU. So at that speed it would take at least 63 to 380 years to get to this new planet. Even if that length of time were acceptable, the radioisotope power source would be too weak to work within 35 years of launch.

I think this would be good practice for an interstellar mission, though. I propose a craft that loops close to the sun with a solar sail/solar collector powering an ion drive.

 

[TheGardener]

Ten years later, and we don't seem to have any more info than this article published by NASA. So this is really old news. Called the tenth planet, probably because its discovery happened before Pluto was downgraded.

http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/newplanet-072905.html

 

[shortylickens]

And yet regardless of mass, if it hasn't cleared it's orbit it won't officially be a planet according to the bogus rule that demoted Pluto.

I thought pluto was demoted because it was tiny. And if we called THAT a planet, we'd also have to label a whole load of tiny orbiters planets as well.

 

[dainthomas]

I thought pluto was demoted because it was tiny. And if we called THAT a planet, we'd also have to label a whole load of tiny orbiters planets as well.

The only size criteria is that it has to be large enough that gravity shapes it into a sphere (which it does). As far as I know, the only criteria it didn't meet was the "clearing the orbit" one.

 

[TechBoyJK]

The only size criteria is that it has to be large enough that gravity shapes it into a sphere (which it does). As far as I know, the only criteria it didn't meet was the "clearing the orbit" one.

plus it meant if pluto was a planet there likely several dozen other similar bodies in the Kieper Belt that would then need to be added as planets.

Pluto is a planet? It means we have like 30 planets in our solar system.

 

[Brainonska511]

Ten years later, and we don't seem to have any more info than this article published by NASA. So this is really old news. Called the tenth planet, probably because its discovery happened before Pluto was downgraded.

http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/newplanet-072905.html

I'm pretty sure that press release is for a different object:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eris_(dwarf_planet)

Eris was discovered in January 2005...
Because Eris appeared to be larger than Pluto, NASA initially described it as the Solar System's tenth planet.

Plus, it has a citation to the press release you linked (though, the original link is faulty).

 

[TheGardener]

I'm pretty sure that press release is for a different object:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eris_(dwarf_planet)

Plus, it has a citation to the press release you linked (though, the original link is faulty).

Well if you are correct, I am shocked that there is no news on NASA regarding this discovery. Or maybe I did a lousy job searching their site.

 

[shortylickens]

plus it meant if pluto was a planet there likely several dozen other similar bodies in the Kieper Belt that would then need to be added as planets.

Pluto is a planet? It means we have like 30 planets in our solar system.

Umm, yeah, thats kinda what I said.
So, yeah.