2012 it were part of the arsenal evoked by apocalyptic believers in an imminent end of the world: a mysterious Planet X would tumble from the depths of solar system to wreak havoc in its path and destroy the Earth. Four years later, we are still there, but the planet might exist, say two US researchers.
Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), proclaim Indeed he discovered, through complex calculations and simulations, there are an unknown planet, well beyond the orbit of Pluto. Tentatively named the ninth planet, this body would evolve to almost 100 billion kilometers from our star, about twenty times as far as Pluto! But its path would be “weird and very elongate”, say the scientists, to the point that it would take “between 10 000 and 20 000 years to complete one orbit around the Sun” where Pluto makes “only” 248 years. Best newcomer would display a size four times that of the Earth, for a mass ten times, which would make it one of the most massive objects in the Solar System.
“We know there are a lot of large objects beyond the orbit of Neptune, the trans-Neptunian confirms Gilles Dawidowicz, president of the planetary commission to the Astronomical Society of France. But they are far too small, too dark and too far, to be observed. If the discovery is confirmed Americans is incredible news for several reasons. First because, given its size, it is a telluric planet, not gas. This calls into question our current knowledge of how formed the solar system. Then the overview last summer, Pluto by the New Horizons probe has revolutionized what we thought we knew. Instead of a dead world, desert, without interest, which we expected, we have seen signs of activity, a world that moves. On this new planet, given its mass, one can imagine an atmosphere, for example of methane, a volcanic activity. If these reports are true, it will consider sending a probe in fifteen years … “
The ninth planet, unearthed without direct observation, is not the first to be by calculations: Urbain Le Verrier predicted by the equations that there was a planet perturbing Uranus his neighbor, reasoning confirmed by the discovery of Neptune in 1846. Similarly, Pluto (demoted to the status of dwarf planet in 2006) was found in 1930 because of Neptune trajectory anomalies.
“The search for a ninth planet is an old astronomy sea serpent, says Gilles Dawidowicz. It has long been sought between the Sun and Mercury, but now research is oriented to the outer solar system. “
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