It is not the first time I write about that mysterious object supposedly orbiting our Solar System (see previous articles here and here), mentioning the long quest and background on the subject and including (a few) conspiracy theories.
I am not the only one with a keen interest in the subject. Just this week, the Scientific American published a long article, explaining in detail what the claim from its existence came from and relating the ongoing debate, starting from the very name of the object.
Planet 9 as Brown and Batygin (Caltech) call it, Planet X, or other more exotic monikers?
What’s sure, whatever it is, the planet is huge. “Brown and Batygin’s best models put this mysterious object at about 10 times Earth’s mass, perhaps 20 times more distant from the Sun than Neptune and currently drifting through what might be a 20,000-year orbit in a patch of sky near the constellation Orion.”
Not only its existence and location are under discussion: even its origin is unclear, due to the fact that the early Solar System was quite a chaotic place. Was a giant like Saturn or Jupiter pushed out of orbit? Or an alien world captured by the Sun’s gravity?
Both theories are plausible.
The coveted planet keeps eluding us, though.
“In the months following the announcement, many of Planet Nine’s most fervent seekers (Brown chief among them) predicted it would probably be found by the end of the following winter—that is, by now. In January of this year Brown was still bullish: Based on “statistically rigorous calculations” incorporating all the available data, there is only a one-in-10,000 chance the planet is not out there, waiting to be found. In other words, Brown’s best guess is Planet Nine has a 99.99 percent probability of being real.”
True or not, it has not been the case so far, but I don’t lose hope, nor do them.
Read the whole article here. For more on the mysterious planet, I have listed many resources in my previous articles, therefore I won’t repeat them (check the posts. For a recent discussion, this one is worth checking). But if I have a message to send it is in the sense of staying tuned: we can expect surprises.
I think it’s interesting that the outer planets are so huge. It’s like all the matter was flung out into the outer reaches and the dribbles ended up closer to the sun. But then, I don’t know how our solar system was formed…from dust around the sun? I hadn’t even heard of this new planet until your blog!
Planet 9 (or whatever they call it) has a long history as a matter of fact…and a quite interesting one, conspiracy theories about the hidden planet in Lagrangian Point 3 of Sun-Earth orbit included. When you have a bit of time, read my older posts about it and browse the links. It makes for quite a reading…! One day or another, I’ll write fiction about it 😀
I’d read that fiction, Steph!
Thanks 🙂
Yep. Count me in, Steph – I look forward to reading that novel, too… Thank you for yet another intriguing article about this mysterious object…
Thanks Sara, maybe, one day… 😀