New Evidence Suggests 9th Planet Lurking at Edge of Solar System

New Evidence of Giant Icy Planet – Solar System

Recently the astronomers at the California Institute of Technology had revealed that they have found new evidence of a giant icy planet prowling in the darkness of our solar system way beyond the orbit of Pluto, known as `Planet Nine’. Their paper which had published in the Astronomical Journal assess that the mass of the planet as five to 10 times that of the Earth. However, the authors, astronomers Michael Brown and Konstantin Batygin had not noticed the planet directly.

On the contrary they had inferred its existence from the motion of lately learned about dwarfed planets as well as other small objects in the outer solar system. These small bodies seem to have orbits which look to be subjective to the gravity of hidden planet – a `massive perturber’. The astronomers propose that it could have been thrown into deep space long ago by gravitational force of Jupiter or Saturn.

Telescopic searches on at least two continents are on, for the object which on an average is 20 times beyond the eighth planet, Neptune. If the `Planet Nine seems to exist, it could be big around two to four times the diameter of the Earth and that would make it the fifth largest planet after Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

New Horizons of NASA – Revealed World of Atmosphere/Weather….

However at such great expanses, it could reflect very little sunlight that it could have gone unnoticed by even the most powerful telescopes. On validation of its existence, the models of the solar system could be reconfigured. Pluto which was discovered in 1930 had spent three quarters of a century as the iconic ninth planet and then a decade ago, Pluto had received a debated demotion in large portion due to Brown.

As per his observation of the outer solar system, he had recognized several small worlds, some close to the size of Pluto and had urged the International Astronomical Union of reconsidering the definition of a planet. The IAU had elected to change the classification of Pluto to `dwarf planet’ a decision which was ridiculed constantly last summer when probe of New Horizons of NASA flew past Pluto, revealing a world with an atmosphere, weather together with a volatile as well as vigorously reworked surface.

Other Explanations for Observed Motion of Small Bodies in Solar System

Brown who tends to tweet under the handle @plutokiller and had written the book `How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming’, mentioned that now could be the time to rewrite the textbooks yet again’. Jim Green, director of planetary science of NASA, warned that there could be other explanations for the observed motion of the small bodies in the outer solar system.He referred the well-known statement from Car Sagan that `extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence’.

He further added `The Sagan Rule applies – If it is there, find it, I challenge you. Somebody out there ought to find it’. He mentioned that he was excited regarding the new research and commented that `what an era we are in, where we’re discovering new things about our solar system that we never thought possible even a handful of years ago’.