Latest news with #NationalTsingHuaUniversity
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Sorry, Pluto: The solar system could have a 9th planet after all, astronomers say
A recent research paper suggests that a planet may exist far beyond Neptune — less than 20 years after the previous ninth planet, Pluto, was demoted. That research paper, accepted last month for publication in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, suggests that a Neptune-sized planet lies within the Kuiper Belt, an expanse of icy debris surrounding the solar system. Hints of this object, dubbed by the researchers as Planet Nine, were found in two photos taken by two infrared space telescopes in 1983 and 2006, the paper stated. Two researchers, National Tsing Hua University astronomy graduate student Terry Long Phan and his Ph.D. advisor Tomotsugu Goto, looked at the photos and found that it was enough time for a mysterious object in those photos to have moved. After they removed known sources such as stars from the photos, Phan and Goto noticed a dot with matching colors and brightness. The hypothesized planet's orbit around the sun would likely take around 10,000 years, California Institute of Technology astronomers Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin told Science. Brown and Batygin were not part of the Planet Nine research team, but both men previously suggested a 'Planet X' existed in the far reaches of the solar system. 'It's kind of fun that a paper that purports to find a candidate for Planet Nine is really finding something that would basically say that we were wrong the entire time,' Brown said to the scientific news website. Elsewhere, there are doubts. University of Regina astronomer Samantha Lawler told Science that Planet Nine's existence would be 'really cool ... But I'm not convinced, with current data, that you can't just go with the simplest explanation.' Phan and Goto will have to wait until later this year for more evidence of their findings, as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in the Atacama Desert in Chile is expected to scan the night sky, Science reported. With enough detail taken by the observatory's large digital camera, it could detect the ninth planet. Failed '70s-era Soviet spacecraft bound for Venus could soon crash back to Earth This 'Star Wars' Day, check out a moon that looks like iconic space station Pieces of Halley's Comet could leave glowing trails across the night sky Look up: This planet is about to pass through cosmic beehive in unique sky event Halley's Comet debris soon to leave glowing streaks in the sky Read the original article on MassLive.
Global News
06-05-2025
- Science
- Global News
A 9th planet in our solar system? Jury's out, but a candidate has emerged
For years, astronomers have been searching for a ninth planet in our solar system (after giving Pluto the old heave-ho and demoting it to a dwarf planet) and now researchers say they've found a promising candidate. The long-theorized Planet 9, which astronomers have speculated could be a Neptune-sized planet that has been lurking on the outer edge of the solar system, could explain the unusual clustering and movements of distant objects in the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune, but tracking such a mass has largely been unfruitful. Now, a newly identified object spotted in two infrared sky surveys has renewed the question of whether the elusive and hypothetical Planet 9 actually exists. According to a new pre-print study, shared in late April and approved for publication in the journal Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia — but has not yet been peer-reviewed — researchers found a curious dot on infrared images taken 23 years apart that seems to be moving in a manner consistent with a large, distant planet. Story continues below advertisement 'I felt very excited,' study lead author Terry Phan, an astronomy doctoral student at the National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan, told Science about his team's discovery. 'It's motivated us a lot.' As with all Planet 9 research, the findings have been met with skepticism — even the study's researchers acknowledge that the surveys have not provided enough data to determine the full orbit of a planetary candidate and that more observations will be needed. 1:54 Astronomers talk about evidence of 9th planet in our solar system Astronomer Mike Brown, who was first to propose the Planet 9 hypothesis in 2016 alongside colleague Konstantin Batygin, told Science that it's going to take more evidence that the infrared dots observed in the latest study correspond to a ninth planet. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy He told the publication that, by his own calculations, the candidate signal's orbit would be tilted roughly 120 degrees from the plane of the solar system, meaning it would actually orbit the Sun in the opposite direction than the other eight planets. According to his models, to explain the clustering and movement of other objects in the Kuiper belt, Planet 9 would need an orbit tilted roughly 15 to 10 degrees from the plane of the solar system. Story continues below advertisement This mismatch 'doesn't mean it's not there, but it means it's not Planet 9,' Brown said. 'I don't think this planet would have any of the effects on the solar system that we think we're seeing.' Brown's discovery of Eris, an icy world in the Kuiper Belt beyond Pluto, led to the reclassification of Pluto as a dwarf planet. He has been dubbed the 'Pluto Killer.' In 2016, he expressed his excitement about a possible replacement planet for the one he killed off. 'All those people who are mad that Pluto is no longer a planet can be thrilled to know that there is a real planet out there still to be found,' Brown said at the time. 'Now we can go and find this planet and make the solar system have nine planets once again.' In a NASA post, titled 'Is Planet X real?', the space agency lays out the research done by Brown and Batygin, summarizing how Planet 9 would behave and appear, if proven real. 'This hypothetical Neptune-sized planet would circle our Sun on a highly elongated path, far beyond Pluto. It could have a mass about 5 to 10 times that of Earth and orbit about 20 to 30 times farther from the Sun on average than Neptune. It would take between 10,000 and 20,000 Earth years to make one full orbit around the Sun,' the agency writes, adding that there are several lines of observational evidence pointing to the existence of a ninth planet. Story continues below advertisement While Planet 9's existence remains fully up in the air, more evidence could become available within a year or two, when a Chilean observatory that's currently under construction opens, giving a better glimpse into what lies at the edge of our solar system. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory will use the world's largest digital camera to peer deeper into space than any predecessor. Earlier this year, Brown told NPR that there's no better telescope to help prove, or disprove, the existence of Planet 9. 'If you were to hand me a big wad of cash and say, 'Go build a telescope to go either find this Planet 9 or find the best evidence possible for Planet 9,' I would probably go and build the Vera Rubin Observatory,' Brown said. 'It really is a telescope that is perfectly suited for making the next step.' Story continues below advertisement Even if they aren't able to actually observe a new planet, he added, the Rubin observatory should give astronomers enough new data to prove whether his hypothesis and observed patterns of objects in the Kuiper belt hold up. 'I think that what Vera Rubin will definitively do,' says Brown, 'is tell us whether we're crazy or not.'
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Astronomers spot candidate for potential ninth planet far beyond Neptune
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Astronomers searching for a ninth planet in our solar system say they've found a "good" candidate far beyond Neptune, according to a new preprint study. This could be humanity's first glimpse at the long-theorized Planet Nine, which — if it exists — is a giant, undiscovered world distantly orbiting our sun. However, the ninth planet proposal is contentious, and the new findings are unlikely to change that. Researchers discovered this latest planetary candidate while studying old satellite data. At this stage, the candidate is simply a curious dot across a few infrared images. But the dot seemed to be moving in a way that was consistent with a large, distant planet. "I felt very excited," study lead-author Terry Phan, an astronomy doctoral student at the National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan, told Science, recalling the discovery. "It's motivated us a lot." Phan and his colleagues posted their findings to the preprint server arXiv on April 24, which have been accepted for publication in the journal Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia. However, the preprint has been met with some skepticism. Mike Brown, an astronomer at Caltech who first proposed the Planet Nine hypothesis with a colleague in 2016, isn't convinced that the infrared dots correspond to the elusive planet. Brown wasn't involved in the study, but calculated the orbit of the infrared signal and found that the object would be tilted about 120 degrees from the Solar System's plane, Science reported. That tilt is much greater than Planet Nine's predicted tilt of around 15 to 20 degrees, and also means this object would be orbiting in a different direction from the known planets, which all sit roughly on the same plane. This mismatch "doesn't mean it's not there, but it means it's not Planet Nine," Brown told Science. "I don't think this planet would have any of the effects on the Solar System that we think we're seeing." Related: How long would it take to reach Planet 9, if we ever find it? The predicted position of Planet Nine is meant to explain the irregular orbits of some objects in the Kuiper Belt at the far reaches of our solar system. However, some researchers are unconvinced that these orbits are caused by an undiscovered planet, and the scientific community as a whole is still waiting for any direct observational evidence of Planet Nine's existence. If Planet Nine does exist, then researchers have predicted that it's much larger than Earth and orbits in an unusual pattern billions of miles beyond Neptune — the eighth and, as things stand, final planet in our solar system. Planet Nine's supposed orbit is so far away from the sun that it would be difficult for Earthling scientists to detect, hence why they're having a hard time proving or disproving its existence. The team behind the new study searched for Planet Nine candidates in the data archives of two decommissioned satellites: the 1983 Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) and the 2006-2011 AKARI satellite, Live Science's sister site reported. They were looking for distant objects that moved slowly between one set of data and the next, like the proposed Planet Nine would be doing if it were orbiting our sun. After ruling out the known objects in the data, the researchers zeroed in on a shortlist of candidates. They then pored over images of these potential objects and eventually came away with what they described in the study as "one good candidate." The candidate is a dot with the same colors and brightness across the two sets of images, suggesting it's one object captured by both satellites. Follow-up observations are needed to determine the object's full orbit, according to the study. RELATED STORIES —Elusive Planet Nine could be an alternative form of gravity masquerading as a planet, study claims —Astronomers narrow down where 'Planet Nine' could be hiding by playing massive game of 'connect the dots' —8 strange objects that could be hiding in the outer solar system Brown told Science that if the infrared signal is a planet, then based on his calculations, it couldn't exist alongside the original hypothesized Planet Nine without the two making each other's orbits unstable. Thus, the new candidate for Planet Nine could be a different planet with the potential to disprove the Planet Nine hypothesis. The existence of Planet Nine — or any other undiscovered ninth planet in our solar system — will likely remain a contentious subject for now. However, 2025 could prove to be the beginning of the end for the search. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, currently under construction in Chile, will open later this year and has the potential to settle the Planet Nine debate. This state-of-the-art observatory will feature the world's largest digital camera and look deeper into space than its predecessors. Researchers are hoping it will be able to spot Planet Nine within a year or two, if it's out there at all.
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
A 9th planet in our solar system might be found — and no, it's not Pluto
There have been questions about a mysterious ninth planet in our solar system for nearly a decade. Pluto was unseated as number nine in 2006. Now, a group of international researchers say they may have found a candidate — although nothing is certain. 'I felt very excited,' Terry Long Phan, an astronomy graduate student at Taiwan's National Tsing Hua University, told Science this week. 'It's motivated us a lot.' Phan was the lead author of the findings in a study that has been accepted for publication in the journal Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia. The research was initially posted to the preprint server arXiv. The researchers used surveys of the sky from two infrared space telescopes that were launched in 1983 and 2006. They theorized that a potential planet's long orbit would enable them to see it move across the sky. They found 13 pairs of dots that could be explained by a moving planet that resembled Planet Nine. One set of dots had matching colors and brightness. But, the announcement has been met with some skepticism. Mike Brown, an astronomer at Caltech who was part of the team responsible for the hypothesis in 2016, told the publication he isn't convinced that the infrared dots Phan and his team identified out of old, infrared satellite data is a ninth planet. His calculations suggested the body would be on a much greater tilt than the solar system's plane and would orbit in a different direction from the known planets. This difference "doesn't mean it's not there, but it means it's not Planet Nine," Brown told Science. "I don't think this planet would have any of the effects on the solar system that we think we're seeing." But, if the researchers are right, their planet would disprove the original planet. They would make each other's orbits unstable and could not exist together, he explained. 'It's kind of fun that a paper that purports to find a candidate for Planet Nine is really finding something that would basically say that we were wrong the entire time,' he noted. However, skepticism doesn't mean there's nothing there. The argument for the planet has to do with the Kuiper Belt: a region of icy debris far beyond Neptune's orbit. The hypothetical planet would explain some strange orbits of the objects there. Theoretically, the Neptune-sized planet Brown and his colleague Konstantin Batygin found would orbit about 20 to 30 times farther from the sun than Neptune, taking between 10,000 and 20,000 Earth years to make one full orbit around our star. "Although we were initially quite skeptical that this planet could exist, as we continued to investigate its orbit and what it would mean for the outer solar system, we become increasingly convinced that it is out there," Batygin, an assistant professor of planetary science, said in 2016. "For the first time in over 150 years, there is solid evidence that the solar system's planetary census is incomplete." No observational evidence for Planet Nine has been found, although this is not the first time a candidate has been identified in infrared data. The last time was in 2021. Some researchers even posit that evidence pointing toward the existence of an undiscovered ninth planet may actually indicate our ideas of gravity are incorrect. Only time will be able to shed light on the truth of the matter. Astronomers will have a closer look using the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory on Chile's Cerro Pachón mountain. 'It is pretty amazing to think that something as big as Neptune could be sitting out there and no one would have ever noticed it,' Gary Bernstein, an astronomer at the University of Pennsylvania, told Science. 'But if you put it far enough away, it gets fainter and fainter very fast.'
The Independent
03-05-2025
- Science
- The Independent
A 9th planet in our solar system might be found — and no, it's not Pluto
There have been questions about a mysterious ninth planet in our solar system for nearly a decade. Pluto was unseated as number nine in 2006. Now, a group of international researchers say they may have found a candidate — although nothing is certain. 'I felt very excited,' Terry Long Phan, an astronomy graduate student at Taiwan's National Tsing Hua University, told Science this week. 'It's motivated us a lot.' Phan was the lead author of the findings in a study that has been accepted for publication in the journal Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia. The research was initially posted to the preprint server arXiv. The researchers used surveys of the sky from two infrared space telescopes that were launched in 1983 and 2006. They theorized that a potential planet's long orbit would enable them to see it move across the sky. They found 13 pairs of dots that could be explained by a moving planet that resembled Planet Nine. One set of dots had matching colors and brightness. But, the announcement has been met with some skepticism. Mike Brown, an astronomer at Caltech who was part of the team responsible for the hypothesis in 2016, told the publication he isn't convinced that the infrared dots Phan and his team identified out of old, infrared satellite data is a ninth planet. His calculations suggested the body would be on a much greater tilt than the solar system's plane and would orbit in a different direction from the known planets. This difference "doesn't mean it's not there, but it means it's not Planet Nine," Brown told Science. "I don't think this planet would have any of the effects on the solar system that we think we're seeing." But, if the researchers are right, their planet would disprove the original planet. They would make each other's orbits unstable and could not exist together, he explained. 'It's kind of fun that a paper that purports to find a candidate for Planet Nine is really finding something that would basically say that we were wrong the entire time,' he noted. However, skepticism doesn't mean there's nothing there. The argument for the planet has to do with the Kuiper Belt: a region of icy debris far beyond Neptune's orbit. The hypothetical planet would explain some strange orbits of the objects there. Theoretically, the Neptune-sized planet Brown and his colleague Konstantin Batygin found would orbit about 20 to 30 times farther from the sun than Neptune, taking between 10,000 and 20,000 Earth years to make one full orbit around our star. "Although we were initially quite skeptical that this planet could exist, as we continued to investigate its orbit and what it would mean for the outer solar system, we become increasingly convinced that it is out there," Batygin, an assistant professor of planetary science, said in 2016. "For the first time in over 150 years, there is solid evidence that the solar system's planetary census is incomplete." No observational evidence for Planet Nine has been found, although this is not the first time a candidate has been identified in infrared data. The last time was in 2021. Some researchers even posit that evidence pointing toward the existence of an undiscovered ninth planet may actually indicate our ideas of gravity are incorrect. the Vera C. Rubin Observatory on Chile's Cerro Pachón mountain. 'It is pretty amazing to think that something as big as Neptune could be sitting out there and no one would have ever noticed it,' Gary Bernstein, an astronomer at the University of Pennsylvania, told Science. 'But if you put it far enough away, it gets fainter and fainter very fast.'
