Is there a giant planet on edge of solar system?
A GIANT planet could be lurking at the edge of our solar system, scientists have claimed.
Their calculations suggest the mysterious world is about ten times the size of Earth and 55billion miles from the sun.
This makes it 20 times further away than Neptune. In fact Planet Nine, as it is called for now, is so far away that it would take 20,000 years to orbit the sun.
If telescopes confirm the maths behind the spectacular claims, then it will qualify as the ninth planet in our solar system, leading to books being rewritten and diagrams of the solar system being redrawn.
Astronomer Mike Brown, who has published compelling evidence for the existence of Planet Nine, told the journal Nature: ‘My first reaction would be that it was crazy. But if you look at the evidence and the statistics, it’s very hard to come away with any other conclusion.’
Until now, Professor Brown, of the California Institute of Technology, has been best known for the research that led to Pluto being stripped of its status as a planet in 2006, leaving just eight planets in our solar system.
The professor, who uses the nickname Pluto-Killer on Twitter, hopes that finding a replacement for Pluto will help appease his daughter. He said: ‘ My daughter is still kind of mad about Pluto being demoted, even although she was barely born at the time. She suggested a few years ago that she’d forgive me if I found a new planet. So I guess I’ve been working on this for her.’
Professor Brown and colleague Dr Konstantin Batygin’s claims rest on their discovery of a peculiar cluster of six small, icy objects in the outer solar system. They say there is only a one in 15,000 chance that the clustering is a coincidence. Instead, they think the gravitational effect of a giant planet shepherded the objects into their elliptical orbits.
Planet Nine’s place on the edge of the solar system may have kept it hidden until now. And it will make it hard for astronomers to spot it, something that is essential if its existence is to be confirmed.
But Professor Brown and Dr Batygin have already started a search of the sky, using one of the world’s largest telescopes. While they say it won’t be up to them to name a new world, they have no doubt it would qualify as a planet. Professor Brown said: ‘ People who are mad that Pluto is no longer a planet will be thrilled to know there is a real planet out there still to be found. Now we can make the solar system have nine planets once again.’
Robin Scagell, of the Society for Popular Astronomy, pointed out: ‘We are talking about a very dim object that’s at the limit of the visibility of our telescopes and it’s not surprising it hasn’t been seen.’ He went on to say that if Planet Nine is spotted, it will ‘ transform our understanding of the solar system’.