As of: February 21, 2024, 12:15 p.m
By: Tanja Banner
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So far no one has seen the alleged “Planet 9”.
(Artist's impression) © Caltech/R.
Hurt (IPAC)
The existence of “Planet 9” could explain many phenomena in the outer solar system.
Despite an intensive search, the mysterious planet remains hidden.
Pasadena – Astronomy often uses the so-called “transit” method to search for as yet undiscovered planets.
This involves observing the light from a star over a longer period of time.
When a planet passes in front of the star, the star's light dims for a brief moment - a sign of a planet that scientists can then track further.
This method has proven to be very effective for planets that orbit stars outside our solar system (so-called exoplanets) - more than 5,500 exoplanets have already been discovered this way.
In the solar system, however, searching for planets using this method is difficult.
Only two planets, Venus and Mercury, pass in front of the sun from our perspective.
A hypothetical ninth planet, which has been searched for in our solar system for years, would move well outside the orbit of Neptune and would therefore never be seen in front of the sun from our perspective.
Therefore, scientists searching for the mysterious “Planet 9” have no choice but to infer the properties of “Planet 9” based on the movements of other celestial bodies.
“Planet 9” is said to exist in the solar system – it has never been seen
Over time, some characteristics have been compiled that are attributed to “Planet 9,” even though it has never been seen.
For example, the unknown planet is said to have around 6.6 times the mass of Earth.
The researchers have also already worked out its possible orbit.
The problem, however, is that the region in the solar system where “Planet 9” could be is huge, distant and dark.
So it's a challenge to search for the planet that many scientists believe exists.
In a new study, a research team has now taken data from the PanSTARRS telescope and searched it for the planet.
Michael E. Brown from the California Institute of Technology and his colleagues did not find anything, but were able to rule out almost 80 percent of the possible locations where “Planet 9” could be located.
“We reduced the search region significantly,” Brown tells
Universe Today
.
Where is “Planet 9”?
80 percent of his whereabouts were searched
The areas of the sky that have not yet been studied will be largely covered by the Vera Rubin Observatory, a giant reflecting telescope currently being built in Chile.
This is what the team writes in their study, which was published on the pre-print server
ArXiv
and
accepted for publication by the specialist magazine
The Astronomical Journal .
Brown is best known as the man who discovered the dwarf planet Eris with a team in 2005.
This discovery led to the definition of the new class "dwarf planet", which led to the degradation of Pluto from planet to dwarf planet.
Brown has been trying to find “Planet 9” for many years now.
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“Planet 9” would be the fifth largest planet in the solar system
“That would be the fifth largest planet in our solar system and the only one with a mass between Earth and Uranus,” explains the researcher, why he is looking for the previously only hypothetical planet.
“Such planets are common around other stars and we would suddenly have the chance to study one in our solar system.”
Another reason to look for the planet is its obvious impact on the outer solar system: "'Planet 9' explains many things about the orbits of objects in the outer solar system that would otherwise be inexplicable and each require their own explanations," Brown points out .
"None of these should occur in the solar system, but all are easily explained as an effect of 'Planet 9'."
If “Planet 9” does not exist, other explanations would be needed
Of course, there is a possibility that “Planet 9” does not exist at all, the research team admits in the study.
However, it then wants to see other explanations for the phenomena in the outer solar system.
The research group states in its work: "As long as such explanations are not available, we continue to consider 'Planet 9' to be the most likely hypothesis."
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