Scientists find evidence for a ninth planet.

[Brainonska511]

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.

That's because this isn't an absolute, physical discovery yet. It is more like a hypothesis that has some supporting circumstantial evidence and needs more validation. The supporting evidence is the weird orbits of several objects in the Kuiper Belt matches what would happen if you modeled the effects of a large planet outside their orbits. But with this supporting evidence, they'll likely try to find the actual planet, should it exist, to prove or disprove their hypothesis.

 

[Childs]

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.

Why would that matter?

 

[dainthomas]

Why would that matter?

Obviously it would be too difficult to come up with a mnemonic that third graders could memorize.

 

[MongGrel]

Where's Leeloo when ye need her, that's obviously some dark planet Zorg contacted lurking to kill us all.

 

[Ruptga]

That's because this isn't an absolute, physical discovery yet. It is more like a hypothesis that has some supporting circumstantial evidence and needs more validation. The supporting evidence is the weird orbits of several objects in the Kuiper Belt matches what would happen if you modeled the effects of a large planet outside their orbits. But with this supporting evidence, they'll likely try to find the actual planet, should it exist, to prove or disprove their hypothesis.

I'm sure it can be done, but finding it is probably going to suck. Anything that is out there, huge or not, is not going to reflect much light at all.

 

[Jeff7]

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.

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.

Wahh, waaaah, waaaaahhh.

My method was easier said than done, but that's not my problem to deal with.
I've seen enough Star Trek episodes to know that reversing the polarity will solve these problems.

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.

Now you're talkin'.


Fire up Project Prometheus again and stick a fission reactor in there while we're at it, and a high-powered laser for communications so we're not shooting data back at three bits per second.


(I can dream, dammit.)

 

[Ruptga]

(I can dream, dammit.)

If we're going to dream, let's talk about a $100B magnetic containment nuclear pulse craft that will flyby a couple of planets along the way too.

 

[Printer Bandit]

 

[DrPizza]

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

Your untuition is off by a few orders of magnitude, unless, of course, you're one of those "Universe is 6000 years old" folks.

90377 Sedna, considered to be a minor planet, has an aphelion over 900 AU. Its orbital period is somewhere around 12000 years. This new planet is in that same ball park. 4.5 billion divided by even 20000 years is a hell of a lot of orbits.

 

[Ichinisan]

Your untuition is off by a few orders of magnitude, unless, of course, you're one of those "Universe is 6000 years old" folks.

90377 Sedna, considered to be a minor planet, has an aphelion over 900 AU. Its orbital period is somewhere around 12000 years. This new planet is in that same ball park. 4.5 billion divided by even 20000 years is a hell of a lot of orbits.

Ah. I was thinking it might take millions of years for an orbit if it's way further out than Pluto -- since hearing that Pluto hasn't made a single orbit from the time it was discovered to the point where it lost its planet status. I was also thinking it could have formed more recently from debris of other bodies that obliterated each other (though I have no reason to expect that is the case).

 

[JujuFish]

Pluto hasn't made a single orbit from the time it was discovered to the point where it lost its planet status

Fun fact that remains true today. Pluto's orbit is 248 (Earth, obviously) years. Pluto was speculated to exist in the late 19th century, wasn't observed until 1909, and wasn't confirmed until 1930. It's only gone through about half an orbit since astronomers first considered its possible existence.

 

[Charmonium]

Pluto. #Never forget#

lol

 

[JTsyo]

Your untuition is off by a few orders of magnitude, unless, of course, you're one of those "Universe is 6000 years old" folks.

90377 Sedna, considered to be a minor planet, has an aphelion over 900 AU. Its orbital period is somewhere around 12000 years. This new planet is in that same ball park. 4.5 billion divided by even 20000 years is a hell of a lot of orbits.

What if it was a rouge planet captured in the past few thousand years? Though that is unlikely since any new bodies entering the system would mess with the orbits of the ice bodies out in the Kuiper Belt.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Haven't early astronomers speculated/though there was another Planet or a death planet?

 

[DrPizza]

Fun fact that remains true today. Pluto's orbit is 248 (Earth, obviously) years. Pluto was speculated to exist in the late 19th century, wasn't observed until 1909, and wasn't confirmed until 1930. It's only gone through about half an orbit since astronomers first considered its possible existence.

That's pretty close - unless I'm mistaken, it was more of a case of "hey, there's got to be another big planet there!" "Hey, we found something on this photographic plate." "Eureka! It's the planet!" And later, Pluto isn't actually what they expected to find. It was supposed to be another giant; but the data was reexamined and explained in a way that would not have required another gas giant.

But, a Pluto itself wasn't actually speculated to exist.

 

[DigDog]

the correct title for this thread is Scientists Do Not Find Evidence Of A Ninth Planet (but speculate it might be a possibility due to the trajectories of some Kupier Belt objects)

 

[Jodell88]

the correct title for this thread is Scientists Do Not Find Evidence Of A Ninth Planet (but speculate it might be a possibility due to the trajectories of some Kupier Belt objects)

Or, change one word of the title.

 

[sdifox]

OMFG it's Gallifrey!

 

[Charmonium]

OMFG it's Gallifrey!

Wait a minute. Isn't Gallifrey still stuck in a time bubble outside of this universe?

 

[DigDog]

dude, Galifrey is in the constellation kasterborous.

(also, it becomes frozen in the future, and then retroactively in the past. but, since the time war has not happened yet, it should still be there.)

 

[sdifox]

dude, Galifrey is in the constellation kasterborous.

(also, it becomes frozen in the future, and then retroactively in the past. but, since the time war has not happened yet, it should still be there.)

Time Travelers duh.

 

[sdifox]

Wait a minute. Isn't Gallifrey still stuck in a time bubble outside of this universe?

was :whiste:

 

[Jaskalas]

Perhaps instead of a planet we're detecting the gravity well of a singularity that we create in the future, at the furthest point we can safely travel at that time.

 

[Harvey]

Ahhh... Science ALMOST immitates art. SO close to a championship grade pun. :biggrin:

 

[NAC4EV]

Now it's quite clear.

There is no intelligent life in the solar system.