Page 41 - All About Space 68 - 2017 UK

Search for Planet Nine

“ It's possible it's sitting in an already Planet Planet
existing dataset, but has not been Nine Ten

correctly interpreted” Konstantin Batygin
Super-Earth The size of Mars
Planet Nine might be Research out this
The first results hinting at the potential of more had been looking at the right spot in the sky for
part rocky planet and month says a tenth
planets were published last year, and researchers Planet Nine for the past three years. If they found it, it part gas giant, making planet could be the
continue to work on improving these models and would be a huge breakthrough, but it would also help it like nothing else in size of the 'Red Planet'
populating them with data. “We still believe that narrow down the search if they didn't. Not spotting our Solar System
there are two or more planets beyond Pluto,” Marcos the planet in the DES data would mean a lot more Far, far away
says. “We hope to publish new and exciting results constraints could be placed on the model, helping Heavy world Planet Ten could
soon.” Marcos and his colleagues are collaborating other searches potentially track the planet or planets Planet Nine could be between 100
with Instituto Astrofisico de Canarias using one of down. “Others are working along similar lines as have a mass about and 400 times the
the largest telescopes currently available, to study well,” Batygin says. “Chad Trujillo and Scott Sheppard ten times that of distance from the Sun
the ETNOs themselves. Batygin and Brown are doing have their own search going, also using Subaru.” Earth, and orbit about compared to Earth
their own observations in an attempt to dampen the It seems all eyes – and telescopes – are on Planet 20 times further from
the Sun, on average, A cold world
suggestion that Planet Nine is dead. “We are carrying Nine. With this surge of activity, the answer to one of than Neptune Far away from the Sun,
out our own Planet Nine search using the Subaru the biggest mysteries in modern astronomy will soon
the temperatures on
telescope, which is much better suited to the task be on its way. Whether or not Planet Nine is lurking Super-long orbit Planet Ten would be
[than OSSOS],” Batygin says. Subaru is an 8.2-metre in already collected data sets, we will know soon It could take between colder than even
optical-infrared telescope in Mauna Kea, Hawaii. enough. “Hopefully within a couple years,” Batygin 10,000 and 20,000 icy Pluto
Until then, the Planet Nine craze is sweeping says, “but for sure within a decade”. Earth years for Planet
astronomy, even catching people who do not Nine to make one full Hard to see
normally look for planets. Dave Gerdes at the orbit around the Sun The distance from the
University of Michigan leads an independent survey Sun would also make
using the so-called Dark Energy Camera. Normally, Strange- Planet Ten a very
he spends his time studying the acceleration of the shaped orbit dark place
universe by looking for distant galaxies in the hopes The proposed
Neptune-sized planet Tilted orbit
of learning more about dark energy, but last year, his could orbit the Sun The proposed Planet
research went down a different avenue. in a highly elongated Ten’s orbit would be
Professor Gerdes was looking for a project to give orbit, stretching tilted, compared to all
his students when Planet Nine was brought to his © XCaltech/R. Hurt (IPAC beyond the Kuiper other planets, by
Planet Nine could be lurking
attention. According to some research that had been Belt and beyond Pluto eight degrees
published earlier in the year, the Dark Energy Survey beyond the Kuiper Belt

Could Planet Ten exist?

Orbital Statistically Less-stable Planet Ten Multiple
warping convincing orbits could be predictions
Last month a Astronomers say Research last hiding Two separate
study said a it would have to year states the A planetary mass teams of
planet the size of be a ‘fluke’ for six orbits beyond object could be astronomers have
Mars could cause there not to be Neptune are less hiding in a bright predicted the
FOR warping of objects unseen extra mass stable than patch called the existence of
we thought
out there
in the Kuiper Belt
a tenth planet
galactic plane
Too many We haven’t It is a less Is it a star? Multiple planets
variables found it yet popular A star that The warp in the
There are so many If a tenth planet theory passed the Solar Kuiper Belt Objects
components does exist, some Fewer people System in an could result from
in the models say telescopes support the idea astronomically more than one
AGAINST
that there may would likely have that a tenth planet recent history planetary mass
be multiple been able to exists compared could have caused object rather than
© Tobias Roetsch
explanations locate it already to Planet Nine the tilt Planet Ten

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