Caltech scientists Michael Brown and Konstantin Batygin have provided evidence for the existence of a giant planet in the solar system, located even further from the Sun than Pluto.

The researchers reported that they have not yet been able to see it through a telescope. According to them, the planet was discovered when studying the movement of small celestial bodies in deep space. The mass of the celestial body is about 10 times the mass of the Earth, but scientists have yet to verify its existence.

Institute astronomers have only a rough idea of ​​where the planet might be in the starry sky, and no doubt their suggestion will launch a campaign to find it.

"There are many telescopes on Earth theoretically capable of finding it. I really hope that now, after our announcement, people around the world will start looking for the ninth planet," said Michael Brown.

Elliptical orbit

According to scientists, the space object is about 20 times farther from the Sun than Neptune, which is 4.5 billion km away.

Unlike the almost circular orbits of other planets in the Solar System, this object is supposed to move in an elliptical orbit, and a complete revolution around the Sun takes from 10 thousand to 20 thousand years.

Scientists have studied the movement of objects consisting mainly of ice in the Kuiper Belt. Pluto is in this belt.

The researchers noticed a certain location of some bodies in the Belt, in particular such large objects as Sedna and 2012 VP113. In their opinion, this can only be explained by the presence of an unknown large space object.

"All the most distant objects move in the same direction on an inexplicable trajectory, and we realized that the only explanation for this is the existence of a large, distant planet that holds them together as they orbit the Sun," Brown said.

Planet X

The idea of ​​the existence of the so-called Planet X, located on the periphery of the solar system, has been discussed in scientific circles for more than 100 years. She is remembered and then forgotten.

The current speculation is of particular interest because of the study's lead author.

Brown specializes in searching for distant objects, and it was his discovery of the dwarf planet Eris in the Kuiper Belt in 2005 that led to Pluto losing planetary status a year later. Then it was assumed that Eris is slightly larger than Pluto, but now it has become clear that it is slightly smaller than it.

Researchers studying distant objects in the solar system have been speculating for some time on the possibility of a planet the size of Mars or Earth due to the size and shape of the planets in the Kuiper Belt. But until you can see the planet through a telescope, the idea of ​​​​its existence will be perceived with skepticism.

The study by Michael Brown and Konstantin Batygin was published in the Astronomical Journal.

Astronomers Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena on the discovery of a candidate for the ninth planet of the solar system outside the orbit of Pluto. The find may become one of the most sensational in the current decade, comparable to the discovery of a new continent on Earth. The results of the search for Planet X, the authors published in The Astronomical Journal. Science News and Nature News briefly talk about them.

What was discovered

Planet X is an object the size of Neptune and ten times the mass of the Earth. The celestial body revolves around the Sun in a highly elongated and inclined orbit with a period of 15 thousand years. The closest distance between the Sun and Planet X is 200 astronomical units (that's seven times the distance between Neptune and the star), and the maximum is estimated at 600-1200 astronomical units. This brings the object's orbit out of the Kuiper Belt, where Pluto is located, towards the Oort Cloud.

Why the ninth planet

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) definition of a planet applies only to celestial bodies in the solar system. According to it, a rounded massive body is considered a planet, having cleared the vicinity of its orbit from a large number of smaller bodies. The IAU officially recognizes the existence of five dwarf planets. One of them (Ceres) is located in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, others (Pluto, Eris, Makemake and Haumea) are beyond the orbit of Neptune. The largest of them is Pluto.

In total, there are eight planets in the solar system, according to the IAU. The largest and most massive of them is Jupiter. Pluto, by decision of the IAU in 2006, ceased to be considered a planet, since it does not meet one of the criteria that determines it (the dominance of its orbit in space). So far, astronomers have discovered more than 40 dwarf planet candidates. Scientists estimate that there may be more than two thousand dwarf planets in the solar system, of which 200 are located within the Kuiper belt (at a distance of 30 to 55 astronomical units from the Sun). The rest are outside of it.

The definition of a planet as a dwarf one is controversial among scientists. In particular, the dimensions of the celestial body can play a decisive role in this case. Planet X, being the fifth in mass and size of the celestial body of the solar system known to science, certainly cannot be considered a dwarf. The unusual orbit and origin of Planet X may lead to a revision of the IAU definition of a dwarf planet.

Image: NASA / JPL-CALTECH

How they opened

The existence of Planet X was suspected in 2014. Then Chadwick Trujillo from the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii and Scott Sheppard from the Carnegie Institution in Washington published an article in Nature, where they reported the discovery at a distance of 80 astronomical units (Pluto is 48 astronomical units from the Sun) from the Sun of the trans-Neptunian object 2012 VP113. In their work, astronomers also suggested that at a distance of 250 astronomical units from the star there is a planet larger than the Earth.

Observer astronomer Brown and computer astronomy expert Batygin decided to refute Trujillo and Sheppard's data. But it turned out differently. Scientists have discovered a new planet by analyzing data on its gravitational effects on other celestial bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. Among them, in particular, is the candidate for the dwarf planet Sedna discovered in 2003 by Brown, Trujillo and David Rabinowitz. Computer modeling and theoretical calculations by Brown and Batygin explain the results of observations by the existence of Planet X. Astronomers estimate the probability of error in their conclusions at 0.007 percent.

How Planet X Came to Be

Astronomers cannot yet give an exact answer to the question of the origin of Planet X. They tend to the following hypothesis. At the dawn of the existence of the solar system, there were five large protoplanets, four of which formed modern Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. However, about three million years after their birth, the gravity of the first two celestial bodies threw Protoplanet X out of the orbit of Neptune.

Structure and composition of Planet X

The origin of Planet X suggests that it was originally similar to the ice giants Uranus and Neptune. The latter is 17 times heavier than the Earth, and its diameter is four times greater than that of the Blue Planet. Uranus and Neptune are classified as ice giants. Their atmosphere consists of gases (hydrogen, helium and hydrocarbons) and ice particles (water, ammonia and methane). Under the atmosphere of the giants is a mantle of water, ammonia and methane ice, under which lies a solid core of metals, silicates and ice. Planet X may have a similar core and mantle without a dense atmosphere.

Criticism

The celestial mechanic Alessandro Morbidelli from Nice acted as a referent for the work of scientists in The Astronomical Journal. He was optimistic about the chances of the discovery of Planet X by astronomers Brown and Batygin. Last but not least - thanks to the authority of scientists. Planetary scientist Hal Levison from Colorado was skeptical about the work of colleagues, citing the haste of Brown and Batygin's conclusions and the need for further verification. As the discoverers of Planet X themselves note, astronomers will believe in their discovery only when they can observe the planet through a telescope.

What's next

To detect Planet X, astronomers have booked time at Japan's Subaru Observatory in Hawaii. Trujillo and Sheppard will compete in the search for the planet with scientists. Confirmation of the existence of a celestial body can take up to five years. If discovered, the object could become the ninth planet in the solar system. Earlier searches for Planet X in the solar system led scientists to discover Neptune (in 1864) and Pluto (in 1930). There is little doubt that the existence of a ninth planet will be confirmed.

In 2006, Pluto was stripped of its status as the ninth planet in the solar system thanks to the efforts of one astronomer, Michael Brown. Together with his colleagues, he discovered, and then other dwarf planets far beyond the orbit of Neptune. Thus, he proved that Pluto is not remarkable and big enough to be called a full-fledged planet. However, now Brown and our compatriot Konstantin Batygin are claiming that the new Planet 9 is already almost open ... and that all that remains is to see it.

Yes, yes, no one has yet seen the “almost open” ninth planet of the solar system! In fact, its discovery is the fruit of long observations of the orbits of other planets. According to Kepler and Newton, the place of each planet in the solar system is determined by its characteristics, mainly by mass. And if the orbit does not correspond to the parameters of the planet or is generally anomalous, then it is influenced by some other, no less massive object. The first planet discovered by mathematical equations, and not live observations, was - in 1846 it was found at a place calculated by the French mathematician Urbain Le Verrier.

Moreover, the planets can influence each other very actively - in the past of the solar system they traveled hundreds of millions of kilometers, approaching and moving away from the Sun. The gas giants were especially distinguished here. In young planetary systems, they absorb all the embryos of the planets and hang close to the star - as close as Mercury. Because of this, they become very hot and become unstable. Scientists call such planets "hot Jupiters" or "hot Neptunes" - depending on their mass and size.

Troubled History of the Solar System

However, Jupiter, the largest and most influential planet, changed everything in the solar system. Initially appearing at a distance of 5 to 10 from the Sun, it provoked active collisions of scattered material in the protoplanetary disk around the star. This gave impetus to the creation of other gas giants, such as Saturn or Neptune, at distances equally close to the Sun.

However, the newly formed planets behaved "ungratefully", following the laws of gravity - they pushed their "parent" closer to the Sun, into the modern orbit of Mars. Thus, Jupiter invaded the inner part of the solar system. In other planetary systems, this part is the most saturated with matter and space objects. But the heavy tread of the mass of Jupiter scattered the embryos of planets and asteroids there, throwing them into the nuclear furnace of the Sun or throwing them to the outskirts of the system in the zone of modern and.

If not for Saturn, which connected Jupiter with an orbital resonance and did not bring it into a modern orbit, the gas giant could completely ruin the solar system, throwing out 99% of the planetary matter from it. However, his travels did not go unnoticed - so Neptune and Uranus changed their orbits, forming most of the long-period comets.

Ultimately, an unusual balance reigned in the solar planetary system - gas giants that form near the star ended up on the outskirts, and "solid planets" like the Earth migrated closer to the Sun. However, some astronomers believed that another planet was needed to achieve such a balance - and one massive enough to influence the large Neptune and Uranus. It, Planet X, was searched for by many astronomers for a century and a half - and it seems that Brown and Batygin finally got close to it.

History of the search for planet X

After Le Verrier calculated Neptune from perturbations in Uranus's orbit, astronomers found that even its presence did not explain the features of the ice giant's orbit. For some time they tried to find another planet that could influence the last large objects of the solar system - however, they managed to find only Pluto, which, by mass and direction of the orbit, could not disturb larger bodies in any way. The issue of Uranus-Neptune anomalies was finally resolved by "", who measured the mass of Neptune in 1989 and thereby found that there are no contradictions in the orbits.

By that time, the power of telescopes had grown significantly, which allowed astronomers to look into the depths of the solar system. Many trans-Neptunian objects have been discovered - dwarf planets and large asteroids, whose closest orbital point is further from the Sun than Neptune. So, in 2005, the already mentioned Eris was discovered, the second largest dwarf planet after Pluto. And in 2003 they found an object with diameters over 2 thousand kilometers, which moves away from the Sun at a distance of 1.4 × 10 11 km - further than any large trans-Neptunian object! It soon acquired a whole family of "sednoids", isolated trans-Neptunian objects with similar characteristics.

The ninth planet - where and why?

Observing the newly discovered planetoids, astronomers C. Trujillo and S. Sheppard, colleagues, discovered an interesting pattern. Most of them have elongated, comet-like orbits that briefly come "close" to the Sun, at a distance of 40 to 70 astronomical units, and then move away for hundreds or even thousands of years. And the larger the object, the stronger its removal. In addition, the sednoids deviated from the Sun in the same direction.

Such a coincidence could be an accident, if we are talking about simple comets - over the billions of years of the history of the solar system, they were scattered by all the major planets, especially the already mentioned "travelers" Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune. However, for such a coincidence in the deviations of large objects, a very large planet is needed, whose orbit would reach the Oort cloud.

Here Brown and Batygin distinguished themselves - by comparing the orbital characteristics of sednoids, they found mathematically that the probability of their random coincidence is only 0.007%. Scientists went further and compiled a computer model aimed at finding the characteristics of the planet, capable of changing the orbits of bodies located beyond Neptune. The data they received in January 2016 became the basis for the announcement of the pre-discovery of a new planet in the solar system.

Characteristics of Planet X

In his interviews, Brown claims that the probability of finding a new planet is 90%. However, until it is actually discovered, with the help of a telescope, it is too early to talk about the final discovery. Nevertheless, the calculated characteristics of Planet 9 have been published - they will be used in future searches.

• The orbital parameters of Planet X will be mirrored to those of the sednoids - the planet's orbit will still be elongated and inclined relative to the plane of the main planets of the solar system, but directed in the opposite direction. Accordingly, the perihelion of the planet - the point of maximum approach to the Sun - will be 200 astronomical units at the nearest point, and the aphelion - the maximum distance - will reach 1200 astronomical units. This is even more than Sedna! A year on Planet 9 will last up to 20,000 Earth years, which is how long it may take to complete the entire orbit.

A planet distant from the Sun is difficult to detect - this requires telescopes operating in the infrared spectrum, or powerful optical devices that can capture even the smallest sun glare on the surface. On infrared telescopes, work will move faster, but errors are possible - and on optical telescopes, the result will be reliable, albeit at the cost of time. The WISE Infrared Orbiting Telescope, which conducted broadband surveys in 2009, has yet to detect Planet X, although it has provided fairly detailed images.

Therefore, Brown, Batygin and other astronomers are planning to find it using the Subaru telescop in the Hawaiian Islands, which is considered one of the largest and highest quality in the world - the diameter of its main mirror exceeds 8 meters! In addition, it is capable of operating both in the optical and in the infrared ranges of light. But even with such a tool, it will take scientists at least 5 years to put an end to the issue of Planet X.

MOSCOW, January 21 - RIA Novosti. Konstantin Batygin, who discovered at the "tip of the pen" the ninth planet, located 274 times farther from the Sun than the Earth, believes that it is the last real planet in the solar system, the press service of the California Institute of Technology reports.

Last night, Russian astronomer Konstantin Batygin and his American colleague Michael Brown announced that they were able to calculate the position of the mysterious "planet X" - the ninth, or tenth, if you count Pluto, the planet of the solar system, 41 billion kilometers away from the Sun and weighing 10 times larger than Earth.

“Although we were initially quite skeptical, when we found hints of the existence of another planet in the Kuiper belt, we continued to study its proposed orbit. Over time, we became more and more confident that it really exists. For the first time in the last 150 years, we have real evidence that we have completely completed the "census" of the planets of the solar system, "said Batygin, whose words are quoted by the press service of the magazine.

This discovery, according to Batygin and Brown, was largely due to the discovery of two other ultra-distant "inhabitants" of the solar system - dwarf planets 2012 VP113 and V774104, comparable in size to Pluto and removed from the Sun by about 12-15 billion kilometers.

Both of these planets were discovered by Chad Trujillo of the Gemini Observatory in the Hawaiian Islands (USA), a student of Brown, who, after their discovery, shared with his teacher and Batygin his observations, indicating oddities in the movement of Biden, as 2012 VP113 was called , and a number of other Kuiper objects.

An analysis of the orbits of these objects showed that some large celestial body acts on them all, forcing the orbits of these small dwarf planets and asteroids to stretch in a certain direction, the same for at least six objects from the list presented by Trujillo. In addition, the orbits of these objects were inclined to the plane of the ecliptic at the same angle - approximately 30%.

This "coincidence," scientists explain, is like clockwork moving at different speeds and pointing to the same minute every time you look at it. The probability of such an outcome of events is 0.007%, which indicates that the orbits of the "inhabitants" of the Kuiper belt were not extended by chance - they were "conducted" by some large planet located far beyond the orbit of Pluto.

Batygin's calculations show that this is definitely a "real" planet - its mass is 5 thousand times greater than that of Pluto, which most likely means that it is a gas giant like Neptune. A year on it lasts about 15 thousand years.

It rotates in an unusual orbit - its perihelion, the point of closest approach to the Sun, is located on the "side" of the solar system, where the aphelion is located - the point of maximum removal - for all other planets.

Such an orbit paradoxically stabilizes the Kuiper belt, preventing its objects from colliding with each other. So far, astronomers have not been able to see this planet because of its remoteness from the Sun, but Batygin and Brown believe that this will be possible in the next 5 years, when its orbit will be calculated more accurately.

Remember all sorts of conspiracy theories about, but it turns out that another planet still exists. Well, at least with a probability of 99.993.

And here's how it happened.

Astronomers Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena reported the discovery of an object the size of Neptune, which is 10 times heavier than the Earth, outside the orbit of Pluto. The authors published the results of the search for Planet X in The Astronomical Journal, and Science News briefly talks about them.

The planet revolves around the Sun in an elongated orbit (and in a plane inclined relative to the Earth's orbit) with a period of 15 thousand years. Its chemical composition is similar to those of the gas giants Uranus and Neptune. According to Brown and Batygin, the object was knocked out of the protoplanetary disk near the Sun 4.5 billion years ago.

The nearest distance between the Sun and the detected object is 200 astronomical units (this is seven times the distance between Neptune and the star). The maximum removal of Planet X is estimated at 600-1200 astronomical units, which brings its orbit beyond the Kuiper belt, in which Pluto is located.

The referent of the work of scientists in The Astronomical Journal was the planetary scientist Michael Brown, who, together with colleagues in 2003, discovered the dwarf planet Sedna, which makes a complete revolution around the Sun in 11.4 thousand years. The specialist was optimistic about the chances of the discovery of Planet X by Brown and Batygin.

Scientists have discovered a new planet by analyzing data on the gravitational perturbation it exerts on other celestial bodies. As Brown and Batygin note, astronomers will believe in their discovery when they can observe the planet through a telescope. To do this, they reserved time at the Japanese Subaru Observatory in Hawaii.

Confirmation of the existence of a celestial body will take five years. If discovered, the object could become the ninth planet in the solar system. The error probability Brown and Batygin estimate at 0.007 percent. Earlier searches for Planet X in the solar system led scientists to discover Neptune (in 1864) and Pluto (in 1930).

Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin, Photo by Popular Science

But back in 2012, according to the calculations of an astronomer from Brazil, there is a rather large space object beyond the orbit of Neptune, which can be recognized as the ninth planet.

With such an assumption, an astronomer from the National Observatory of Brazil Rodney da Silva Gomes made. He drew attention to the deviation from the given calculations of the orbits of six Kuiper belt objects, among which the contender for the title of a dwarf planet is Sedna.

According to him, there are several explanations for the unusual behavior of some objects in the belt. The simplest is the existence of a large body, a planet that changes their orbits with its gravity.