Planet Nine, is it out there?

Started by the-pi-guy, Jan 22, 2019, 05:32 PM

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the-pi-guy

The story began many years ago, when Astronomers noticed something.

They were all like "Neptune, you're weird!  Why?"

There were no answers.

Finally it came.  Pluto.

But then NASA said it was too small.  

Then a new answer came.  Eris.

And again NASA wanted to keep the mystery open by declaring it too was too small.  

SciFi writers came up with their own proposal. Nibiru.  

NASA continues to deny the existence of Nibiru.  Something about needing "evidence", "facts", "an observation".  

Now finally there is a new proposal.

Mysterious Planet Nine hiding beyond Neptune might not be a planet at all - CNET

Quote
New research published Monday, appearing in Astronomical Journal, has put forth an alternate explanation of this strange phenomenon and suggests that the clustered orbits might not be the result of a Planet Nine at all. A team from the University of Cambridge and the American University of Beirut believe a disc of "small icy bodies" with a "combined mass as much as ten times that of Earth" is responsible for the mystifying orbits.

Sorry this was too fun to write.

Do you think there's a planet 9?

Legend

Fun fact you probably already know.

Neptune was discovered this way. The orbit of Uranus was irregular so they crunched the numbers and determined another planet must be causing it. Sure enough they found Neptune with telescopes.

Then they did the same thing to find Pluto. Crunched the numbers, looked in a telescope, and then found a new planet. This time however it was a pure coincidence. It wasn't until the 70s and later that scientists learned just how small Pluto was and that another planet wasn't needed to make the other orbits work.



I really hope there is a planet 9 and a bunch more too. It'd be crazy weird to have the concept of a solar system redefined within our life times. Just imagine if there were a whole bunch of planets just out there past the kuiper belt doing their own thing. Hopefully the James Webb Space Telescope and other future telescopes will help figure this out.

kitler53

if video games have taught me nothing else it is that there is always another procedurally generated planet to explore.


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