They were looking for the mysterious “ninth planet.” Instead, American scientists think they have discovered a new dwarf planet at the borders of the Solar System.
The icy rocks located in the Kuiper belt, beyond Neptune, tend to follow an orbit grouped in a private direction. Twenty years ago, astronomers have argued that this phenomenon is due to the gravitational attraction of a ninth planet, which can be ten times more massive than the earth, which would have escaped all observations.
It is looking for this mysterious world, whose existence is debated, that a trio of American astronomers claims to have discovered a new candidate for the title of Dwarf Planet.
“One of the most interesting discoveries in the external solar system for a decade”
Called 2017 of 2017, the object has approximately 700 kilometers in diameter, according to a preliminary study published last week, which has not yet been evaluated by its peers.
Three times smaller than Pluto, but large enough to enter the category of dwarf planets, said the main author of the Sihao Cheng studio, of the Institute of Advanced Studies of New Jersey, in the United States.
The object is currently three times further from the earth than Neptune. But its extremely elongated orbit takes it to more than 1,600 times the distance between the earth and the sun, to the Oort cloud, on the edge of the solar system. During this 25,000 -year trip, the object would only be observable from the earth 0.5% of the time, approximately a century.
“It is already becoming lower and weaker,” says Sihao Cheng, according to whom this discovery suggests that there could be “several hundred similar objects in similar orbits” in Kuiper’s belt. Researchers are now taking the time to guide James Webb, Hubble and Soul telescopes towards their discovery.
A 23 -year -old Californian Amateur astronomer, Sam Deen, had already managed to follow the candidate of the dwarf planet in old databases. “OF201 is probably one of the most interesting discoveries in the external solar system for a decade,” he said.
The hypothesis of the existence of a ninth planet questioned?
After his discovery in 1930, Pluto took the title of Ninth Planet of the Solar System for a while. Before being degraded to the range of dwarf planet in 2006, especially due to its small size, it is smaller than our moon. Our system has another four: Ceres, Eris, Makémaké and Haumea.
When the researchers modeled the 2017 2017 orbit of 2017, they discovered that it did not follow the grouped trend of similar objects in the Kuiper belt. This could question the hypothesis of the existence of a ninth planet. Additional data is needed, insists Sihao Cheng.
This “formidable discovery” and other similar people mean that “the initial argument in favor of the existence of a ninth planet becomes weaker,” said Samantha Lawler, a researcher at the Canadian University of Regina.
“We are at a time when large telescopes can almost see the borders of the universe”, but our “garden” remains a great extent, says Sihao Cheng. He hopes to get answers on the ninth planet thanks to the Vera Rubin Observatory, which is to enter the service this year in Chile.
“I don’t think we have to ask ourselves the question of its existence for a long time,” says Sam Deen.
Source: BFM TV
