We know where he is. Mysterious Planet Nine is closer than we thought

The imaginary ninth planet of the solar system is much closer than we thought, at least assuming it exists. This is a recent decision by a pair of scientists who have observed the entire orbit around the nine planets. The portal drew attention to the topic Physics.

Are there nine planets?

Nine fictional planets, also known as Planet X or Planet Next, have been hidden in mystery since 2016. Many she They see it as a myth, and others are constantly looking for it. The first reference to the nine planets appeared in a study published in the journal Astronomy Magazine, Constantine Patigin and Caltech’s Michael Brown noted that there is an undiscovered planet in the outer part of the solar system.

Now these gentlemen are available on their new study prepress server arXiv (The study was accepted by The Astrophysical Journal Letters), which re-evaluated their calculations based on reviews of the original work and found that Planet Nine should be closer than we think. The authors published other important information about themselves Blog.

Planet Nine is an imaginary planet Located in the solar system, beyond the orbits of other planets in space behind the Khyber belt.

The planet is estimated to be 5 to 10 times heavier than Earth and about 13,000 to 26,000 kilometers in diameter.

The “strange” group of objects in the Khyber belt. Brown, Bodygin, RXive

Evidence of its existence must be its gravitational action on other bodies. If not Planet Nine, the objects in the Khyber belt are expected to be approximately in the plane of the solar system’s orbit.

Instead, however, it can be clearly seen that the multiple orbits of these bodies are grouped in the same orientation. Of course, there is also the possibility that Planet Nine simply does not exist and the whole extraordinary arrangement is simply a statistical disorder.

It is worth mentioning on the spot the study that took place earlier this year, in which a team of scientists works with Body and Brown She did not give up and blamed many of its shortcomings. Other studies, on the other hand, have suggested that the imaginary planet is nine In fact, it is not a planet, but a black hole.

Where is this hypothetical planet located?

The authors took this criticism to heart and re-evaluated their original data, but found that the mass of material in the Khyber belt was still unusual. According to them, there is only a 0.4% probability that this is a coincidence.

The hypothesis was guided by the interactions between the orbits of the six transneptone bodies, whose strange orbits can be seen in the figure. Source: Wikipedia

As the portal writes EarthskyAccording to new calculations, the planet is 6.2 times heavier than Earth and orbits the Sun at a distance of about 300 to 380 AU. (Editor’s note: AU – astronomical unit, the average distance between the Sun and the Earth)

They set the planet’s orbit tilt to 16 and brightness to about 22 degrees. The brightness of the planet, depending on where it is in orbit, the closer the planet is to the sun, the brighter it will be.

Simply put, the new study is moving nine planets closer to the sun than previously thought. This is really strange, according to many, if it is even closer than we thought, we should already find it. However, the authors claim that observations have so far only excluded nearby areas where the nine planets are located, which has significantly reduced the chances of that happening. According to them, if the planet really exists, we should discover it in the future through Vera Rubin’s laboratory.

Although the study has not yet provided conclusive evidence for the existence of this imaginary planet, it suggests that at least the search for this planet is coming to an end. We will soon find the ninth planet, or observations will dismiss it.