An artist's impression of an ice-crusted world
(ESO)Scientists have been mulling over the existence of the mysterious Planet Nine hiding away in the murky depths of our solar system for years now. While the scientific community is largely divided about the existence of this supposedly massive terrestrial planet, most agree that a stray world or two could be lurking along with all the other trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) lying beyond the areas the Sun’s light touches.
Now, a pair of researchers have suggested that a more modestly-sized, Earth-like planet, revolves around our Sun much closer that the debated Planet Nine, on a tilted orbit. This would offer a possible explanation for the TNOs’ strange behaviours that have been attributed to the presence of something larger.
According to Patryk Sofia Lykawka of Kindai University and Takashi Ito of the National Astronomical Observatory in Japan, this frozen world is roughly 1.5-3 times the mass of Earth, and no farther than 500 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun.
For context, Pluto, unceremoniously stripped of its planetary status 17 years ago, orbits the Sun at an average distance of about 40 AU. And the most distant single object ever to be found in the Solar System lay at a distance of 132 AU from our host star.
While human habitation on this new Earth-like planet is unlikely as of now, its existence, if proven, would be exciting for several other reasons as well.
The development of more sensitive telescopes and surveys has allowed planetary scientists to find icy rocks and dwarf planets in the Kuiper belt. And they have come to observe a distinctive pattern in the way they move, one of which is clustering.
Certain groups of TNOs seem to bunch together and move in groups on inclined or tilted orbits. This suggests that they've been gravitationally influenced by something significantly larger than the smaller objects spotted to date.
After revisiting a bunch of data, Lykawka and Ito realised that the properties of a hypothetical planet could explain the peculiarities of the Kuiper Belt. For example, this would explain why the objects had inclinations of over 45 degrees and the planet's gravity was probably pushing TNOs together into clustered populations.
However, more knowledge of the orbital structure in the distant Kuiper Belt is needed to either reveal or rule out the presence of a hypothetical planet in the outer solar system, say researchers.
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2023-09-01 13:00:26Z
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