The hunt for mysterious 'Planet Nine' offers up a surprise
Some astronomers say the strange, clustered orbits of icy rocks beyond Neptune indicate that something big is out there, which they have dubbed Planet Nine.
Now, a US-based trio hunting this elusive world has instead stumbled on what appears to be a new dwarf planet in the solar system's outer reaches.
And the existence of this new kid on the block could challenge the Planet Nine theory, the researchers have calculated.
Named 2017 OF201, the new object is roughly 700 kilometres (430 miles) across according to a preprint study, which has not been peer-reviewed, published online last week.
That makes it three times smaller than Pluto.
But that is still big enough to be considered a dwarf planet, lead study author Sihao Cheng of New Jersey's Institute for Advanced Study told AFP.
- Distant traveller -
The object is currently three times farther away from Earth than Neptune.
And its extremely elongated orbit swings out more than 1,600 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun, taking it into the ring of icy rocks around the solar system called the Oort cloud.
It goes so far out, it could have passed by stars other than our Sun in the past, Cheng said.
During its 25,000-year orbit, the object is only close enough to Earth to be observed around 0.5 percent of the time, which is roughly a century.
"It's already getting fainter and fainter," Cheng said.
The discovery suggests "there are many hundreds of similar things on similar orbits" in the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune, Cheng said.
After taking a risk spending more than half a year sorting through a difficult dataset in search of Planet Nine, Cheng said he was "lucky" to have found anything at all.
The researchers are requesting time to point the James Webb, Hubble and ALMA telescopes at their discovery.
But Sam Deen, a 23-year-old amateur astronomer from California, has already been able to track the dwarf planet candidate through old datasets.
"OF201 is, in my opinion, probably one of the most interesting discoveries in the outer solar system in the last decade," Deen told AFP.
- What about Planet Nine? -
The icy rocks discovered in the Kuiper belt tend to have a clustered orbit going in a particular direction.
Two decades ago, astronomers proposed this was due to the gravitational pull of a world up to 10 times larger than Earth, naming it Planet Nine and kicking off a debate that has rumbled since.
It is also sometimes called Planet X, a name proposed for a hypothetical world beyond Neptune more than a century ago.
Back in 1930, astronomers were searching for Planet X when they discovered Pluto, which became our solar system's ninth planet.
But Pluto turned out to be too tiny -- it is smaller than the Moon -- and was demoted to dwarf planet status in 2006.
There are now four other officially recognised dwarf planets, and Cheng believes 2017 OF201 could join their ranks.
When the researchers modelled its orbit, they found it did not follow the clustered trend of similar objects.
This could pose a problem for the Planet Nine theory, but Cheng emphasised more data is needed.
Samantha Lawler of Canada's University of Regina told AFP that this "great discovery" and others like it mean that "the original argument for Planet Nine is getting weaker and weaker".
The Vera Rubin Observatory, which is scheduled to go online in Chile this year, is expected to shed light on this mystery, one way or another.
Deen said it was discouraging that no sign of Planet Nine has been found so far, but with Vera Rubin "on the horizon I don't think we'll have to wonder about its existence for much longer".
For Cheng, he still hopes that this huge planet is out there somewhere.
"We're in an era when big telescopes can see almost to the edge of the universe," he said.
But what is in our "backyard" still largely remains unknown, he added.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
News.com.au
6 hours ago
- News.com.au
Review: Can Netgear's cheapest Wi-Fi 7 router fix your internet woes?
Does a router really make a difference in speeding up your internet within your home? It's a question I've often asked, especially while watching the wheel of death as YouTube videos were loading or Netflix streams died. Our internet connection at home is normally pretty good. But in recent times, it seems to have got worse, particularly after the rain or other weather events. And of course with so many devices connected in homes these days, everyone is trying to get a little bit of the bandwidth love. So when I got the opportunity to review Netgear's most affordable Wi-Fi 7 router, the Nighthawk RS100, I thought why not. At $259 it's definitely one of the more affordable solutions for people wanting faster connections of devices across the home, especially for those who have deadspots. It promises speeds of up to 3.6 GPS for gaming, smoother streaming and video conferencing. Did I notice a huge increase in speed? Yes and no. In my weeks of testing, I generally found my internet more stable and yes there was less buffering. But truth be told, the biggest increase came when I saw I could get a better internet speed from my provider for about $10 a month. That difference was surprisingly better than I thought it would be given I had pretty decent internet, most of the time. So what are the benefits of getting a router? In general, while a router won't increase your internet speed from your provider, it can optimise its performance in the home. That's especially the case when you have multiple devices connected at the same time. And with more powerful antennas, or mesh networking capabilities with better, more expensive systems, they can extend Wi-Fi range, eliminating dead spots in larger homes. Dual-band and tri-band routers also offer more channels and frequencies to avoid interference. Importantly, they can also offer better protection against hacking attempts. The Nighthawk RS100 is good for up to 185m2 of 360-degree WI-FI coverage. Netgear says its Armor software provides an automatic shield of security for your Wi-Fi and connected devices for real-time protection against hackers and added privacy with VPN. It was pleasantly reassuring to see on the Netgear app that there had been no threats on our connections during testing. You get a 30 day trial with the router and if you think there's value in it, you can subscribe for about $99 a year, which includes a VPN service. A VPN, or Virtual Private Network, creates a secure, encrypted connection between your device and the internet, masking your IP address. It allows you to bypass geographic restrictions and access content as if you were in another location, which is a particularly popular use to get around streaming restrictions. How easy is it to set up a router? Out of the box, the Netgear router is easy to set up. You simply download the Nighthawk app, scan the QR code on the router and it will take you through the set up process which includes plugging it into your existing modem with the cords provided. I made a mistake with the cords I connected and it quickly identified that, advising me to check I had plugged them into the right spots. The whole process took about 30 minutes, which included rebooting and updating the router. Then of course you have to go around to the various devices you use and make sure you switch over to the Netgear connection to ensure the benefits. I was hoping I might be able to give some devices greater preference in terms of bandwidth – for example my work computer vs. my son's gaming needs, but that option wasn't available. There also no parental controls via the app that I could see. The router supports just the 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz frequency bands, omitting the higher-speed 6.0GHz band, so if you are right into gaming, you might want to go for the next models up. But if you have an older modem, you certainly should see some decent improvements. If space is an issue, one of the benefits of the RS100 model is it is smaller than others in the range, standing at 184mm high, 66mm wide and 122mm deep. It's certainly a lot smaller than my existing modem. The RS100 has a 2.5Gb Ethernet port for your broadband connection (WAN), along with four Gigabit Ethernet ports to provide wired (LAN) connections for a PC or games console if required. The app is easy to use and will show you things like your internet speed and the history of your speed. So is it worth it? At $259, it could be a reasonable costing solution to improving your connections throughout the house. But if you are looking for more advanced features like parental controls, you will need to look at other routers, or do it via your owns phones.
ABC News
12 hours ago
- ABC News
As South Australia deals with its algal bloom, California is dealing with another
A dead sea lion is discovered on one end of the coast, and not far away an entire pod of long-beaked common dolphins lay stranded. It is becoming a familiar scene for those living along the coast of Southern California. And much like in South Australia, where thousands of dead sea creatures have washed ashore since March, a harmful algal bloom is to blame. Warning: This story contains content that some readers may find distressing. In California, this is the fourth consecutive year of death and destruction along the coastline. There have been scores of marine mammals and sea birds injured and killed, with US rescuers dealing with "by far historically the largest mass stranding event" relating to algal blooms. In South Australia, the Karenia mikimotoi bloom, kills fish and other sea creatures by impacting their gills, causing them to drown. In the US, authorities have been dealing with different types of algae, including one that produces domoic acid which can cause mammals like sea lions to experience seizures, behave aggressively or die. The Pacific Marine Mammal Center (PMMC) said the harmful algal bloom on the Southern California coast had significantly impacted sea lion and common dolphin populations and had killed two humpback whales and a minke whale. "In 2025, we've experienced the worst domoic acid algae bloom that we've ever experienced in Southern California history," Alissa Deming, PMMC vice president of Conservation, Medicine and Science told ABC News. Dr Deming said the PMMC hospital had taken in hundreds of sick mammals, which had been "physically demanding and very emotionally taxing" on staff and volunteers trying to help while protecting the public from aggressive animals. "A number of the sea lions were also pregnant, and that resulted in reproductive losses of over 85 fetuses born and lost in our hospital as a result of this bloom," she said. The veterinarian said there were likely similar drivers for its bloom to the one happening in South Australia including increasing marine temperatures and more nutrients from cold water upwelling. "By combining the warm sea surface temperatures with increased nutrients, that has resulted in us having a bloom event every year since 2022, with them seemingly becoming larger, longer lasting and covering a lot larger geographic region," Dr Deming said. Investigations are underway if the destructive Los Angeles wildfires in January and the associated run-off have contributed to the bloom. The US National Office for Harmful Algal Blooms said a conservative estimated cost of harmful algal blooms for the the US was about $50 million, but experts say expenses are hard to quantify. A 2024 study estimated losses to tourism-related businesses during the 2018 Florida red tide bloom at $US2.7 billion. Dr Deming said the US government agencies continued to have monitoring and management practices in place to support the commercial seafood industry. "Being able to have good federal and state agencies that can do surveillance to test to ensure seafood is safe for the public, as well as trying to come up with preventative measures or best management practices to prevent blooms, … are really high priority items," she said. "We're happy we have some of those systems in place, but there's absolutely room for improvement I think all around the world to help prevent the conditions that support these really long lasting and devastating blooms." Other algal blooms have also wreaked havoc in other parts of the world. An algae surge choked to death an estimated 40,000 tonnes of salmon in Chile in 2016 while hundreds of elephant deaths in Botswana in 2020 were linked to cyanobacteria, often called blue-green algae in Australia. The scale of each harmful algal bloom event seems to be increasing, professor Gretta Pecl from the University of Tasmania's Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies told the ABC. "If there isn't something done to mitigate, to reduce climate emissions, warming will continue and these kinds of events will be more and more likely," she said. US research biologist at NOAA Fisheries Kathi Lefebvre, who has been studying harmful algal blooms for 25 years, said the blooms were getting worse and reaching areas "where we used to not have problems". "It is turning out to be a major impact of climate change." Authorities in South Australia have linked South Australia's algal bloom to climate change, and state and federal governments have pledged a collective $28 million for a suite of measures to tackle the algal bloom, including more funding for testing. Dr Lefebvre said authorities needed to take action now to mitigate the effects of future blooms. "What's going to happen if these blooms are going to be continuing is that there's going to need to be ways to test for toxins … to protect human health," Dr Lefebvre said. "The more information we have, the better decisions we can make.
News.com.au
a day ago
- News.com.au
Harrowing footage shows American Airlines plane ‘on fire'
At least one person was injured when a plane departing Denver International Airport, US, was forced to abort takeoff due to a landing gear failure. This caused passengers to flee the flaming and smoking aircraft on an inflatable emergency slide in a chaotic scene captured on harrowing video, the New York Post reported. American Airlines Flight 3023 had a landing gear incident as it was taking off for Miami around 2:45pm local time, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. 'Flight 2023, you got a lot of smoke,' an air traffic controller can be heard telling the pilot in cockpit audio from Live ATC, local news site 9News reported. 'There was some flames. Looks like the smoke is dying down a bit,' they said. 'You are actually on fire,' the controller quickly added moments later. Video showed passengers frantically sliding down an inflatable safety slide as thick black smoke billowed from flames engulfing the rear left side of the aircraft. The Denver Fire Department announced it had extinguished the blaze in a social media post at 5:10pm local time. The airline said there was an issue specifically involving the Boeing 737 MAX 8's tire, Denver 7 reported. All 173 passengers and six crew members evacuated the plane 'safely,' American Airlines said in its statement. Six people were evaluated for minor injuries, with one transported to a local hospital after deplaning, according to Denver 7. 'All customers and crew deplaned safely, and the aircraft was taken out of service to be inspected by our maintenance team,' American Airlines said in a statement. 'We thank our team members for their professionalism and apologise to our customers for their experience.' Passengers were expected to depart for Miami on another aircraft on Saturday, the carried added.
