Astronomers Say Unseen Planet Nine Could Be Brighter, Closer, and Easier To Find

Planet Nine is now estimated to be closer to the Sun than previously thought.

By Edited by Gadgets 360 Newsdesk | Updated: 2 September 2021 14:52 IST

Astronomers Say Unseen Planet Nine Could Be Brighter, Closer, and Easier To Find

Photo Credit: Unsplash/ NASA

Planet Nine is believed to be located beyond the orbit of Neptune (pictured, file photo)

Highlights

Two Caltech astronomers say they know how to locate Planet Nine
It could be lurking somewehre beyond Neptune
Planet Nine is considered to be hypothetical by most researchers

The solar system is full of wonders. One intriguing mystery troubling the scientific community is whether a large, icy planet sits beyond the orbit of Neptune. Scientists have long argued there could be a ninth planet but a definite evidence is yet to be found. Critics assert that finding the planet is unrealistic. So, this hypothetical celestial body has been named “Planet Nine” by those who believe it exists. A new study by the US-based California Institute of Technology (Caltech) says if the planet is out there, it could be brighter, closer, and easier to find than previously thought.

Two Caltech astronomers — Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin — said in a research paper that if the unseen ninth planet is lurking out there in the outer edge of our cosmic neighbourhood, they know exactly where to look for it. They are the same people who announced in 2016 that they had evidence of a Planet Nine.

Now, the duo have produced a paper depicting a map showing where the planet should be. It should be noted that the map only lays out the possible orbit of the hypothetical planet and does not point out its exact location.

However, based on their calculations of Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs), Brown and Batygin have come up with some figures for Planet Nine. They estimate it to have a mass about six times that of Earth. This study puts Planet Nine closer to the Sun than originally thought. They believe its distance from the Sun is about 300 times the distance between the Sun and the Earth.

But why have we not been able to find it? The authors say observations so far have ruled out the closest options for Planet Nine. They say if the planet exists, it can be detected by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in the near future.

Brown also tweeted an image of the treasure map that helped the astronomers “learn about the orbit and mass of Planet Nine in a statistically meaningful way.”

Our tome on the predicted orbit of Planet Nine is now out. Check it out here: https://t.co/Pn0xeKYTHY

You can read some thoughts of mine here: https://t.co/MHixHBznsR

Or you can hang on for some of the coolest details.
— Mike Brown (@plutokiller) August 24, 2021

Most research for locating a new planet is based on finding its gravitational pull on other planets. This was how Neptune was discovered when astronomers noticed that Uranus seemed to be tugged by an unseen planet. However, for Planet Nine, there's no effect of gravity on any other planet. What scientists have nonetheless found is an odd clustering of small icy bodies. These bodies are known as KBOs.

The astronomers studied all the known KBOs and found that many of these objects have eccentric orbits that they believe are being affected by a distant and massive planet – likely Planet Nine.

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