Astronomers Announce The Discovery Of Planet X In The Solar System

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Video: Astronomers Announce The Discovery Of Planet X In The Solar System

Video: Astronomers Announce The Discovery Of Planet X In The Solar System
Video: Planet X: The new planet in our solar system? 2024, March
Astronomers Announce The Discovery Of Planet X In The Solar System
Astronomers Announce The Discovery Of Planet X In The Solar System
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Astronomers announce the discovery of Planet X in the Solar System - Planet X, Planet X
Astronomers announce the discovery of Planet X in the Solar System - Planet X, Planet X

Scientists at the California Institute of Technology Michael Brown and Konstantin Batygin have provided evidence for the existence of a giant planet in the solar system, located even further from the Sun than Pluto.

Researchers have reported that they have not yet been able to see it through a telescope. According to them, the planet was discovered while studying the motion of small celestial bodies in deep space. The mass of the celestial body is about 10 times the mass of the Earth, but scientists have yet to verify its existence.

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The institute's astronomers only roughly imagine where the planet may be in the starry sky, and, no doubt, their assumption will launch a campaign to find it.

"There are many telescopes on Earth that can theoretically find it. I really hope that now, after our announcement, people around the world will start looking for the ninth planet," said Michael Brown.

Elliptical orbit

According to scientists' calculations, the space object is about 20 times farther from the Sun than Neptune, which is 4.5 billion km from it.

Unlike the almost circular orbits of other planets in the solar system, this object presumably moves in an elliptical orbit, and a complete revolution around the sun takes from 10 thousand to 20 thousand years.

Scientists have studied the motion of ice-predominantly objects in the Kuiper Belt. Pluto is in this belt.

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Researchers have noticed a specific arrangement of some bodies in the Belt, in particular such large objects as Sedna and 2012 VP113. In their opinion, this can only be explained by the presence of an unknown large space object.

"All the most distant objects are moving in the same direction along an inexplicable trajectory, and we realized that the only explanation for this is the existence of a large distant planet that holds them together as they revolve around the sun," said Brown.

Planet X

The idea of the existence of the so-called Planet X, located on the periphery of the solar system, has been discussed in scientific circles for over 100 years. They remember and forget about her.

The current hypothesis is of particular interest due to the lead author of the study.

Brown specializes in finding distant objects, and it was thanks to his discovery of the dwarf planet Eris in the Kuiper Belt in 2005 that Pluto lost its planetary status a year later. Then it was assumed that Eris is slightly larger than Pluto, but now it has become clear that she is slightly smaller than him.

Researchers studying distant objects in the solar system have been speculating for some time now that a planet the size of Mars or Earth could exist due to the size and shape of the planets in the Kuiper Belt. But until you can see the planet through a telescope, the idea of its existence will be perceived with skepticism.

The study by Michael Brown and Konstantin Batygin was published in the Astronomical Journal.

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