Latest news with #InternationalAstronomicalUnion
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Search for 'Planet Nine' Yields Unexpected Discovery
Astronomers have long been on the hunt for "Planet Nine," a hypothetical planet that lies within our solar system just beyond Neptune. Scientific evidence has alternately pointed to and against the existence of such a planet, but the search is still on, stoked by the 2006 demotion of Pluto to "dwarf planet." This time, scouring the cosmos may have yielded a concrete result—it's just not the kind astronomers were hoping for. A small team of researchers at the Institute for Advanced Study and Princeton University spent half a year sifting through data from the Victor M. Blanco Telescope's Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey (DECaLS). Gathered in 2019 by the telescope's Dark Energy Camera, or DECam, the archive consists of wild-field optical imaging data from the green, red, and z bands. Though these filters make it possible to search for distant space objects via photometric redshift, no one (to the researchers' knowledge) had looked for Planet Nine in the DECaLS dataset before. According to a preprint paper that has not yet undergone peer review, the researchers found a dwarf planet candidate they've since dubbed 2017 OF201. With an estimated diameter of approximately 700 kilometers (435 miles), the object is just big enough to classify as a dwarf planet. The International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center announced the finding this month. This illustration shows just how wide 2017 OF201's orbit is, compared with the orbits of solar system planets. Credit: Jiaxuan Li, Sihao Cheng But the team is lucky they found 2017 OF201 at all: Only 0.5% of its wide, elliptical orbit comes close enough to Earth for Blanco to detect. At its farthest point from the Sun (aphelion), the object is more than 1,600 times farther away than Earth, making a complete orbit 25,000 years long. "This limited visibility window strongly suggests that a substantial population of similar objects—with large sizes, wide orbits, and high eccentricities—should exist but be difficult to detect due to their extremely large distance," the paper reads. The orbit of 2017 OF201 is also strange because it appears to contradict a common hypothesis about Planet Nine. The hypothetical planet's gravity is thought to shepherd trans-Neptunian objects into a cluster of sorts, but 2017 OF201 resists such clustering. What this means within the broader search for Planet Nine will likely be determined by Chile's Vera Rubin Observatory, which is expected to go online later this year.
Metro
18 hours ago
- Science
- Metro
Twist in search for mysterious 'Planet Nine' in the dark depths of our solar system
Scientists hunting for Planet Nine, an elusive planetary body that could change our understanding of the solar system, have found something. Planet X is a hypothetical planet seven times the mass of Earth tucked just behind Pluto. Despite possibly being the fifth most massive planet, scientists have never tracked the white whale of astronomy down – that is, if it even exists. But a trio of American scientists trying to find the elusive gas giant have discovered a new planet… of sorts, a dwarf planet called 2017 OF201. According to a study, which has not been peer-reviewed, 2017 OF201 is roughly 430 miles across, three times smaller than Pluto. The object is an extreme trans-Neptunian object (eTNO), a minor planet that orbits the Sun far beyond Neptune. So far away, in fact, OF201 would take 25,000 Earth years to complete a solar lap. Its orbit even swings out into the Oort Cloud – a sphere of icy comets a trillion miles from the Sun. OF201 can only be observed from Earth 0.5% of the time, making its closest approach to us in 1930 and won't do so again until 26,186. The International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center added 2017 OF201 to its database last week. Five other dwarf planets are officially recognised: Pluto, Eris, Ceres and two others beyond Neptune, Haumea and Makemake. The search for a ninth planet in our solar system has been going on for a century. The evidence for it that hunters have long clung to is how six objects – dwarf planets and chunks of ice – have been discovered in the vastly empty outskirts of the solar system. Bizarrely, they huddle together as they orbit, as if something a gassy behemoth of a planet were shepherding them, said Imo Bell, astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich. They told Metro: 'Some astronomers believe that proving the existence of this planet would explain the behaviour of many other eTNOs with highly elliptical orbits clustered on one side of the Sun. 'It's thought that Planet Nine, with a mass of about five Earths, would explain the confined orbits of these eTNOs.' Sihao Cheng of New Jersey's Institute for Advanced Study and Princeton University graduate students, Jiaxuan Li and Eritas Yang, discovered 2017 OF201. They did so by combing through an archive of images of the outskirts of the solar system, taken by the Blanco telescope in Chile, as well as by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii. Over time, they realised that tiny dots in the images were a single dwarf planet-sized rock with a wide and eccentric orbit. Yang said: 'It must have experienced close encounters with a giant planet, causing it to be ejected to a wide orbit.' Yet the discovery isn't exactly what the team had hoped for, explained Bell, as it's not part of the pack of eTNOs that imply Planet Nine exists. They said: 'The discovery of 2017 OF201 is significant because it's found in a region of the Solar System thought to be empty, and it's presence points to the existence of other similar eTNOs with orbits that challenge ideas about Planet Nine as they are not clustered in the way that has been seen with other eTNOs.' Yang's simulations only considered one proposed orbit of Planet Nine, meaning that the findings don't disprove the planet's existence altogether. Cheng hasn't lost hope, saying that the existence of 2017 OF201 suggests there 'could be another hundred or so other objects with similar orbit and size'. 'They are just too far away to be detectable now,' he added. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Saturn in Aries for the first time since 1999 will impact these five star signs most MORE: Nasa warns of huge solar flares that could cause blackouts on Earth MORE: Here's the best spots to see the Northern Lights tonight
Yahoo
a day ago
- General
- Yahoo
A New Dwarf Planet Has Joined Our Solar System's Family—Meet Pluto's 'Extreme Cousin'
Earth has a new neighbor that lives far, far away. Scientists from the Institute for Advanced Study's School of Natural Sciences believe they have found a new dwarf planet in extreme outer space. Officially named 2017 OF201, the object is estimated to be about one-third the diameter of Pluto, making it large enough to be classified as a dwarf planet, the same designation given to Pluto in 2006. According to the International Astronomical Union, to be considered a planet, an object must orbit a star, be mostly round, and be big enough that its gravity clears away any other objects of similar size near its orbit. Dwarf planets, like Pluto, can't clear their orbit of debris. Sihao Cheng, an astrophysicist at the Institute for Advanced Study's School of Natural Sciences who led the team that discovered the object, described it as an "extreme 'cousin' of Pluto." The new finding is known as a trans-Neptunian object, or TNO, which are bodies in the solar system that orbit the sun beyond Neptune, which is 30 times more distant from the sun than Earth. Because the object takes an incredibly lengthy 25,000 years to complete one orbit around the sun, it's only detectable at certain times. Cheng discovered the object as part of an ongoing research project to identify TNOs and possible new planets in the outer solar system. The area beyond the Kuiper Belt, where the object is located, has previously been thought to be empty, but the team's discovery suggests otherwise. "2017 OF201 spends only 1 percent of its orbital time close enough to us to be detectable. The presence of this single object suggests there could be another hundred or so other objects with similar orbits and sizes; they are just too far away to be detectable now," Cheng said. He added: "Even though advances in telescopes have enabled us to explore distant parts of the universe, there is still a great deal to discover about our own solar system." Read the original article on Martha Stewart
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Scientists Detect Mysterious Object in Deep Solar System
Scientists are intrigued after spotting a highly unusual celestial object lurking at the very edge of our solar system. It's possible the trans-Neptunian object, dubbed 2017 OF201, is large enough to qualify as a dwarf planet, making it an "extreme 'cousin' of Pluto," according to Princeton postdoc Sihao Cheng, who coauthored a yet-to-be-peer-reviewed paper on the findings. The discovery was also confirmed by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center last week, lending it an aura of growing credibility. It's a particularly intriguing finding, again bolstering the case that the area of our solar system past the orbit of Neptune is far busier than previously thought. Astronomers have long suggested the existence of a ninth planet, dubbed Planet X or Nine, whose immense gravitational pull could be causing trans-Neptunian objects in the region to act unusually. However, the latest findings could challenge the hypothesis, suggesting 2017 OF201, among other objects, could be causing the strange behavior instead. Cheng and his colleagues used advanced computational models to hone in on the mysterious object's unusual trajectory. 2017 OF201 is an outlier thanks to its enormous size and immense distance from the Sun. "The object's aphelion — the farthest point on the orbit from the Sun — is more than 1600 times that of Earth's orbit," said Cheng in a statement about the research. "Meanwhile, its perihelion — the closest point on its orbit to the sun — is 44.5 times that of Earth's orbit, similar to Pluto's orbit." Thanks to its extreme orbit, it takes the planetoid a whopping 25,000 Earth years to complete a journey around the Sun. How it got out there remains a bit of a mystery. "It must have experienced close encounters with a giant planet, causing it to be ejected to a wide orbit," said coauthor and Princeton PhD Eritas Yang in the statement. The team proposes that 2017 OF201 went through a series of complex maneuvers to end up in its unusual trajectory. "There may have been more than one step in its migration," Cheng explained. "It's possible that this object was first ejected to the Oort cloud, the most distant region in our solar system, which is home to many comets, and then sent back." The findings could challenge the Planet Nine hypothesis since 2017 OF201 isn't part of the observed clusters of objects that "cluster in specific orientations," as coauthor and Princeton graduate student Jiaxuan Li said. These clusters have been found to have strange gravitational characteristics, orbiting at a very different angle than the solar system's planets. Intriguingly, there could be plenty of other weird "cousins" of Pluto in the far reaches of the solar system. But spotting them could prove extremely difficult. "2017 OF201 spends only one percent of its orbital time close enough to us to be detectable," Cheng said. "The presence of this single object suggests that there could be another hundred or so other objects with similar orbit and size; they are just too far away to be detectable now." "Even though advances in telescopes have enabled us to explore distant parts of the universe, there is still a great deal to discover about our own solar system," he added. More on Planet Nine: Scientists Say They May Have Spotted a Huge Hidden Planet Deep in Our Solar System
Express Tribune
4 days ago
- Science
- Express Tribune
2017 OF201, new dwarf planet beyond Pluto, discovered: How it could change the way we look at solar system map
Astronomers have just unveiled an extraordinary discovery in the far reaches of the solar system that could dramatically change the way we view our cosmic neighbourhood. A new dwarf planet, temporarily named 2017 OF201, has been located in a distant orbit far beyond Pluto. The object, which may be a distant cousin of Pluto, has an orbital path so vast that it takes an incredible 25,000 Earth-years to complete one revolution around the sun. To put this into perspective, Pluto's orbit around the sun takes 248 years. At its furthest distance, 2017 OF201 is more than 1,600 times farther from the sun than Earth, with even its closest approach being still 44.5 times the distance from Earth to the sun. RPG NEWS: Scientists discovered a mysterious new world beyond Pluto, potentially rewriting the solar system's map. This icy world, temporarily named 2017 OF201, is a distant cousin of Pluto. At its farthest, it's over 1,600 times Earth's distance from the sun; at its closest,… — RPG The Random Post Generator (@JimmyMcSqueezle) May 26, 2025 The discovery was announced by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center on May 21, 2025, following extensive research led by Sihao Cheng, a researcher from the Institute for Advanced Study. Cheng, along with a team of Princeton University graduate students, found the new dwarf planet while searching for a theoretical "Planet 9," a hypothetical world beyond Neptune that may be influencing the behaviour of objects in the outer solar system. Using advanced computer programs, the team sifted through years of images captured by the Victor M. Blanco Telescope in Chile and the Canada France Hawaii Telescope. By identifying bright moving spots in the sky, they were able to pinpoint the location of 2017 OF201. This distant world could potentially qualify as a dwarf planet, with an estimated size of 435 miles in diameter, placing it in a similar category to Pluto. Despite its distance, the object's discovery challenges the prevailing notion of an empty outer solar system. What makes 2017 OF201 particularly interesting is its orbit. Unlike most trans-Neptunian objects, which follow more uniform orbits, 2017 OF201's highly eccentric path raises questions about how it ended up so far out in the solar system. One theory suggests it could have been flung into its wide orbit after encountering a giant planet, such as Neptune or Jupiter. 🚨 New dwarf planet candidate: 2017 OF201 🚨 ~700 km wide, now 90.5 AU from the Sun. Orbit: a = 838 AU, q = 44.9 AU — deep into the inner Oort Cloud. Possibly part of a hidden population totaling ~1% of Earth's mass. 📄 Paper: #dwarfplanet — Tony Dunn (@tony873004) May 22, 2025 Alternatively, the object may have originated in the mysterious Oort Cloud, a theoretical region of icy bodies surrounding the solar system, before it was ejected and later returned. In fact, the discovery of 2017 OF201 suggests that the Oort Cloud, long considered a faint and distant region of space, may actually host a much larger number of objects than previously thought. This revelation could also indicate that other objects similar in size and orbit to 2017 OF201 are lurking out there, waiting to be discovered. Cheng remains optimistic about the potential for more discoveries in this distant region of space. "The presence of this single object suggests that there could be another hundred or so other objects with similar orbit and size," Cheng said. "They are just too far away to be detectable right now." This finding adds another layer of complexity to our understanding of the solar system's outer boundaries. It also raises questions about the very nature of distant space exploration. NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, which made history by sending back detailed images of Pluto and its moons in 2015, is currently journeying beyond the Kuiper Belt, the region where Pluto resides. However, even New Horizons has yet to reach the outermost reaches of the solar system, suggesting that there may be far more out there to discover. The discovery of 2017 OF201 comes at a time when scientists are reevaluating the structure of the solar system. Researchers have long speculated about the existence of Planet 9, an elusive object that could be responsible for the odd clustering of distant objects in the outer solar system. However, the unusual orbit of 2017 OF201 raises doubts about the existence of Planet 9, suggesting that its gravitational effects may not be as pronounced as previously believed. As astronomers continue to study 2017 OF201 and similar objects, they may uncover new insights into the formation and evolution of our solar system. With the vastness of space still largely unexplored, this discovery is just one more reminder of the mysteries that lie beyond our current understanding. The findings are detailed in a paper that has been made available on the arXiv preprint server, offering further insights into this groundbreaking discovery.
