What ever happened to Planet X?

[XT]

From this column, I thought I’d put in an update on the article from this:

A planet four times the size of Earth may be skirting the edges of the solar system beyond Pluto, according to new research. Too distant to be easily spotted by Earth-based telescopes, the unseen planet could be gravitationally tugging on small icy objects past Neptune, helping explain the mystery of those objects’ peculiar orbits.

The claim comes from Rodney Gomes, a noted astronomer at the National Observatory of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Gomes presented his recently completed computer models suggesting the existence of the distant planet at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Timberline Lodge, Ore., earlier this month.

Astronomers who attended the talk find Gomes’ arguments compelling, but they say much more evidence is needed before the hypothetical planet can be crowned as real.

For several years, astronomers have observed that a handful of the small icy bodies that lie in the so-called “scattered disc” beyond the orbit of the planet Neptune, including the dwarf planet Sedna, deviate from the paths around the sun that would be expected based on the gravitational pulls of all the known objects in the solar system.

Unknown entity

Several planet types could fit the disturbances seen in Gomes’ calculations. For example, a Neptune-size planet, about four times bigger than Earth, orbiting 140 billion miles (225 billion kilometers) away from the sun would influence the anomalous objects in the observed manner. Or, a Mars-size planet with a highly elongated orbit — but one that always keeps it well beyond the orbit of Pluto — could yield similar results. As for how it got there, the planet could have been born in and expelled from a distant star system and later captured by our sun’s gravity, Gomes said, or it could have formed near our sun and gradually been thrust outward through gravitational interactions with the other planets.

Though Gomes’ work has not yet been peer-reviewed, his colleagues are confident he got the math right. “[Gomes] is very good. It’s hard to imagine he made a mistake in his calculations,” said Hal Levison, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo.

“Rodney Gomes is actively seeking further evidence and I await his findings with interest!” Douglas Hamilton, an astronomer at the University of Maryland, told Life’s Little Mysteries. “He has taken on a difficult task, but is taking the right approach. It is definitely a high risk, high reward, situation — a discovery of a new planet would be spectacular!”

New planet or old star?

This would not be the first time a planet was revealed by way of its gravitational effects on other celestial bodies. The existence of Neptune was hypothesized at the turn of the 19th century — long before the gas giant was actually seen through a telescope in 1846 — because of the way it was perturbing the orbit of Uranus.

On the other hand, many astronomers spent much of the 1900s searching for an extra planet, dubbed Planet X, beyond the orbit of Neptune, because they believed there were anomalies in the orbits of Neptune and the other gas giants. “But it turned out that anomaly in Neptune’s orbit was the result of bad observation,” Levison said. The search for Planet X was called off (though some conspiracy theorists believe this was a cover up of the planet Nibiru, which they say is on a collision course for Earth.)

“You can go back 100 years to claims of planets in the outer solar system and they’ve all eventually gone away,” he continued. “That should give you pause for thought. Just because there’s not a good explanation for [the orbits of the scattered disc objects] besides another planet, doesn’t mean there won’t be a good explanation in future.”

So, just something interesting. No hard evidence as yet, but there COULD be a Planet X (or possibly a dwarf star, if we were a binary system in the past). It might be cool if there was a large planet or star out there…imagine what weird conditions might exists (especially if it’s a dwarf star and it’s still hot).

-XT

[Irishman]

If it were a dwarf star and still hot, wouldn’t it be emitting thermal energy, and thus visible? Given the size and proximity, it would be long since seen by IR telescopes.

If there is something out there, it is likely another ice-ball like Pluto, Sedna, Eris, etc.

[Powers]

Since when is Neptune about four times bigger than Earth?
Powers &8^]

[XT]

@Irishman

If it were a dwarf star and still hot, wouldn’t it be emitting thermal energy, and thus visible? Given the size and proximity, it would be long since seen by IR telescopes.

If there is something out there, it is likely another ice-ball like Pluto, Sedna, Eris, etc.

I guess it would depend on how big it was. Not sure if it were small enough and ‘hot’ meant it was at a few thousand degrees (or less) if we’d necessarily see it. I’ve heard folks speculate that our system is actually part of a binary system and that it’s plausible that we have a companion star that’s really small and relatively cold and that we’d not know it, but I have no idea how realistic that is.

From this article they are talking about something quite a bit larger than Pluto, Sedna, Eris or the like though.

-XT

[XT]

@Powers

Since when is Neptune about four times bigger than Earth?

I think they are talking strictly about the diameter there, not volume or mass (which actually makes no sense considering they are talking about gravitational distortion).

-XT

[Sailboat]

How would they distinguish between gravitational perturbations produced by a discrete Planet X and those that are the cumulative effect of a large number of Kuiper Belt objects?

[Powers]

@Sailboat

How would they distinguish between gravitational perturbations produced by a discrete Planet X and those that are the cumulative effect of a large number of Kuiper Belt objects?

I’m not an expert, but it seems to me that the gravitational vectors would be less focused if caused by multiple objects.
Powers &8^]