Latest news with #PlanetX
Metro
17 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 According to a study, which has not been peer-reviewed, 2017 OF201 is roughly 430 miles across, three times smaller than Pluto.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
Eyewitness News
21 hours ago
- Science
- Eyewitness News
The hunt for mysterious 'Planet Nine' offers up a surprise
PARIS - It's an evocative idea that has long bedevilled scientists: a huge and mysterious planet is lurking in the darkness at the edge of our solar system, evading all our efforts to spot it. 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.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Astronomers' hunt for elusive "Planet Nine" takes surprising twist
It's an evocative idea that has long bedeviled scientists: a huge and mysterious planet is lurking in the darkness at the edge of our solar system, evading all our efforts to spot it. 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 U.S.-based trio hunting the 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 the new kid on the block could challenge the Planet Nine theory, the researchers have calculated. Named 2017 OF201, the new object is roughly 430 miles across, according to a preprint study, which has not been peer-reviewed and was 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. "Lucky" discovery The object is currently three times farther away from Earth than Neptune. 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. "See almost to the edge of the universe" 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 recognized dwarf planets, and Cheng believes 2017 OF201 could join their ranks. When the researchers modeled 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 emphasized 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. Cheng made the discovery alongside colleagues Jiaxuan Li and Eritas Yang from Princeton University, and Li said the newly found object demonstrates the power of open science. "All the data we used to identify and characterize this object are archival data that are available to anyone, not only professional astronomers," Li said in a statement. "This means that groundbreaking discoveries aren't limited to those with access to the world's largest telescopes. Any researcher, student, or even citizen scientist with the right tools and knowledge could have made this discovery, highlighting the value of sharing scientific resources." The new discovery was officially announced by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center on May 21. SpaceX loses contact with its Starship, spins out of control Sneak peek: My Mother's Murder Trials - Part 1 Trump administration signals Harvard has more time to respond in international student case
NDTV
2 days ago
- Science
- NDTV
Scientists Discover New Dwarf Planet Challenging Planet Nine Theory
It's an evocative idea that has long bedevilled scientists: a huge and mysterious planet is lurking in the darkness at the edge of our solar system, evading all our efforts to spot it. 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.
GMA Network
2 days ago
- Science
- GMA Network
The hunt for mysterious 'Planet Nine' offers up a surprise
PARIS, France — It's an evocative idea that has long bedeviled scientists: a huge and mysterious planet is lurking in the darkness at the edge of our solar system, evading all our efforts to spot it. 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 kilometers (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 traveler 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 recognized dwarf planets, and Cheng believes 2017 OF201 could join their ranks. When the researchers modeled 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 emphasized 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. — Agence France-Presse
