Breakthrough in search for phantom planets: does it solve the asteroid mysteries?

Does a mysterious ninth planet exist?

He could provide the explanation for some inconsistencies in space.

And researchers are now reporting a breakthrough.

Pasadena - After Pluto was denied status as a planet and it was demoted to a dwarf planet, our solar system officially only has eight planets.

But researchers have suspected a ninth planet for a long time.

In the search for him, an expert has now reported a slight breakthrough.

It could be the next breakthrough discovery in space.

Mysterious ninth planet could explain anomalies in space

Since 2016, researchers have suspected that there is still an as yet undiscovered Neptune-sized planet in the outer solar system.

Such a planet would explain some mysterious anomalies in what is known as the Kuiper Belt.

There were several noticeable deviations in the orbit of larger objects - such as asteroids and dwarf planets - for which such a ninth planet could be responsible.

Nothing is proven and the theory is not undisputed.

However, astronomers now have a small success to report.

The two researchers Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin from the California Institute of Technology have been researching the possible ninth planet for five years.

Now Brown stated on his blog that the "most difficult task" has been completed: "We now know where to look".

Ninth planet?

Likely path discovered

According to the Scinexx portal, the two researchers determined the most likely position of the planet on the basis of a model simulation, in which they included various possible masses and sizes and also included the planetary gravity effects.

The result is a map that shows the most likely orbit and location of the planet.

The paper [finally!] Takes all of the observations of the outer solar system and tries to invert them to learn about the orbit and mass of Planet Nine in a statistically meaningful way.

So where is Planet Nine?

Let me show you the treasure map.

pic.twitter.com/LijMt7kSWX

- Mike Brown (@plutokiller) August 24, 2021

However, the current data would only show the likely path of the planet, but not where it is in this orbit.

The researchers suspect that it is currently close to the point furthest from the sun on the calculated orbit.

Nevertheless, the chances are now much better to find the ninth planet, if it exists.

In the brightest variant included, it could even be that the planet can already be seen on images from space.