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 true planet solar system, according to the press service of the California Institute of Technology.
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.
Astronomers have announced the discovery of another contender for the title of the most distant inhabitant of the solar system - the dwarf planet V774104 with a diameter of 500-1000 kilometers, located 15 billion kilometers from the Sun.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%.
Such a "coincidence," scientists explain, is like clockwork moving at different speeds 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 distance from the Sun, but Batygin and Brown believe that this will be done in the next 5 years, when its orbit will be calculated more accurately.
One of the discoverers of the new ninth planet - Michael Brown, is known as "the man who killed Pluto." It was on his initiative that Pluto was deprived of the official status of the planet. And in 2010, Brown even wrote a book, How I Killed Pluto and Why It Was Inevitable. Many in scientific world they even joked that the discovery of a new planet by Brown was an attempt to rehabilitate Pluto for the “murder”, because the decision to deprive him of the status of a planet was extremely negatively perceived by society.
Michael Brown (left) Euroradio.fm
New planet - ice giant
Unlike Pluto and Eridu, which Brown also discovered, the new planet is supposedly a gas-ice giant and looks something like Neptune. Scientists believe that the new planet has a diameter of 2-4 times the Earth's and a mass of about 10 Earth's, which puts it in this indicator between the terrestrial planets and giant planets.
She is very far away
Neptune is the planet farthest from the Sun, located at a distance of 4.5 billion km from it. And the new ninth planet is 20 times further away. That's a lot, even by astronomical standards. For comparison: not so long ago, the NASA New Horizons probe flew to Pluto, this journey took him 9 years. It would have taken him 54 years to fly to the new ninth planet. And this is only in the best scenario, when the planet would be as close as possible to the Sun. It would take New Horizons about 350 years to reach the farthest point of its orbit.
It is the largest and longest orbit around the Sun.
Due to the fact that the new ninth planet is very far from the Sun, around which it revolves, its period of revolution is extremely long. Only according to the most modest calculations of scientists, a complete revolution around the star takes this planet from 10 to 20 thousand years. Just think about this number. Even if the lowest limit of 10,000 years is accurate, the last time this planet was in the same place as it is now, when mammoths still walked the earth, and the number of people worldwide did not exceed 5 million. The entire history of mankind, from the earliest development of agriculture to the invention of spaceships, would fit in just one year on this planet.
Wikimedia The new planet may be the "fifth giant"
Back in 2011, based on the structure of the Kuiper belt, scientists began to suggest that in our solar system, most likely there was a fifth giant planet. Such assumptions were made in an attempt to understand exactly how a complex of large icy asteroids in the Kuiper belt formed, which stick together and move in a strictly constant orbit. After checking with the help of computer simulation about 100 options development of events, scientists came to the conclusion that at the dawn of the origin of the solar system, it most likely had a fifth giant planet.
According to scientists here is how it was: about 4 billion years ago, a certain giant planet, by the force of its gravitational field, “pushed” Neptune out of its then-occupied orbit next to Jupiter and Saturn. Neptune is in the back of the solar system beyond Uranus. During this “flight”, Neptune took with him pieces of the primary matter of the solar system, which were then thrown out of its current orbit by its gravitational forces and formed the core of the current Kuiper belt. The whole question was, what kind of planet was it? Uranus, Jupiter and Saturn were not suitable for this role.
Now, with the advent of the new ninth planet, something began to clear up. Scientists suggest that having done her "dirty deed", she apparently flew into deep space, thrown out of the solar system by the forces of gravitational interaction with other planets.
The new planet could help with interstellar travel.
One of the biggest problems in interstellar travel is that we don't have enough fuel to keep a ship's engines running for many years in space.
In the case of probes and reconnaissance interplanetary ships, scientists have long and quite successfully used such a trick as a "gravitational maneuver", which allows to disperse the ship due to the force of gravity of a large planet. For the Voyager and New Horizons probes, this planet was Jupiter.
Well, if (when) we want to explore interstellar space, then the new ninth planet can become such a planet for us. Problems can arise only if its density is less than the density of Neptune, then the increase in speed from such a maneuver around it will be extremely small. In any case, we will only be able to find out about this when we study the new planet more carefully.
Conspiracy theories call it the "planet of death".
It's time to get used to the fact that every time after the discovery of new objects in our solar system, various adherents of conspiracy theories begin to call these objects the harbingers of the imminent apocalypse. Usually this role is assigned to comets and asteroids. But these guys also could not pass by the discovery of a new ninth planet.
Almost immediately after the announcement of scientists, various Internet prophets proclaimed that the new planet is the same planet Nibiru. It is assumed that "Nibiru" is a mythical planet that the secret government knows about, but carefully hides this fact from people, because one day "Nibiru" will pass very close to the Earth, which will provoke destructive earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, which in the end lead to the apocalypse.
And it really can be the "planet of death"
No, of course, next to the Earth, this new ninth planet is unlikely to ever pass, this is absolutely fantastic. However, there are, albeit not great, but still real chances that she may indirectly be guilty of the apocalypse.
The fact is that the enormous force of attraction of this planet for a gravitational maneuver can be used not only by probes and spaceships. The same thing can happen with an asteroid. Using its gravity, the new ninth planet can literally “launch” a huge rock at us, from which we cannot dodge. Of course, the probability that this will happen in such a huge space is negligible, but still it is.
It may not exist at all.
And this is perhaps the most important, what you should know about the new ninth planet. So far no one has seen this planet. Astronomers only assume the presence of this planet, based on the statistical anomalies of the orbits of minor planets that have developed over billions of years. That is, according to the behavior of neighboring objects, which are affected by some gravitational force, scientists suggest that this force may come from a large planet. Only visual detection can confirm its existence.
However, given the fact that the planet moves very slowly and is far from Earth, this makes it very difficult to find. Brown and Batygin have already booked time on Japan's Subaru telescope at an observatory in Hawaii. Brown estimates that surveying most of the region of the sky where the planet could be located will take about five years.
Biggest unsolved mysteries human body
The oldest substance on earth is older than the sun
Interesting facts about the solar system
One of the discoverers of the new ninth planet - Michael Brown, is known as "the man who killed Pluto." It was on his initiative that Pluto was deprived of the official status of the planet. And in 2010, Brown even wrote a book, How I Killed Pluto and Why It Was Inevitable. Many in the scientific world even joked that Brown's discovery of a new planet was an attempt to rehabilitate Pluto for "killing" Pluto, because the decision to deprive him of the status of a planet was extremely negatively perceived by society.
Michael Brown (left) Euroradio.fm
New planet - ice giant
Unlike Pluto and Eridu, which Brown also discovered, the new planet is supposedly a gas-ice giant and looks something like Neptune. Scientists believe that the new planet has a diameter of 2-4 times the Earth's and a mass of about 10 Earth's, which puts it in this indicator between the terrestrial planets and giant planets.
She is very far away
Neptune is the planet farthest from the Sun, located at a distance of 4.5 billion km from it. And the new ninth planet is 20 times further away. That's a lot, even by astronomical standards. For comparison: not so long ago, the NASA New Horizons probe flew to Pluto, this journey took him 9 years. It would have taken him 54 years to fly to the new ninth planet. And this is only in the best scenario, when the planet would be as close as possible to the Sun. It would take New Horizons about 350 years to reach the farthest point of its orbit.
It is the largest and longest orbit around the Sun.
Due to the fact that the new ninth planet is very far from the Sun, around which it revolves, its period of revolution is extremely long. Only according to the most modest calculations of scientists, a complete revolution around the star takes this planet from 10 to 20 thousand years. Just think about this number. Even if the lowest limit of 10,000 years is accurate, the last time this planet was in the same place as it is now, when mammoths still walked the earth, and the number of people worldwide did not exceed 5 million. The entire history of mankind, from the earliest development of agriculture to the invention of spaceships, would fit in just one year on this planet.
Wikimedia The new planet may be the "fifth giant"
Back in 2011, based on the structure of the Kuiper belt, scientists began to suggest that in our solar system, most likely there was a fifth giant planet. Such assumptions were made in an attempt to understand exactly how a complex of large icy asteroids in the Kuiper belt formed, which stick together and move in a strictly constant orbit. After checking with the help of computer simulations about 100 possible scenarios for the development of events, scientists came to the conclusion that at the dawn of the origin of the solar system, it most likely had a fifth giant planet.
According to scientists here is how it was: about 4 billion years ago, a certain giant planet, by the force of its gravitational field, “pushed” Neptune out of its then-occupied orbit next to Jupiter and Saturn. Neptune is in the back of the solar system beyond Uranus. During this “flight”, Neptune took with him pieces of the primary matter of the solar system, which were then thrown out of its current orbit by its gravitational forces and formed the core of the current Kuiper belt. The whole question was, what kind of planet was it? Uranus, Jupiter and Saturn were not suitable for this role.
Now, with the advent of the new ninth planet, something began to clear up. Scientists suggest that having done her "dirty deed", she apparently flew into deep space, thrown out of the solar system by the forces of gravitational interaction with other planets.
The new planet could help with interstellar travel.
One of the biggest problems in interstellar travel is that we don't have enough fuel to keep a ship's engines running for many years in space.
In the case of probes and reconnaissance interplanetary ships, scientists have long and quite successfully used such a trick as a "gravitational maneuver", which allows to disperse the ship due to the force of gravity of a large planet. For the Voyager and New Horizons probes, this planet was Jupiter.
Well, if (when) we want to explore interstellar space, then the new ninth planet can become such a planet for us. Problems can arise only if its density is less than the density of Neptune, then the increase in speed from such a maneuver around it will be extremely small. In any case, we will only be able to find out about this when we study the new planet more carefully.
Conspiracy theories call it the "planet of death".
It's time to get used to the fact that every time after the discovery of new objects in our solar system, various adherents of conspiracy theories begin to call these objects the harbingers of the imminent apocalypse. Usually this role is assigned to comets and asteroids. But these guys also could not pass by the discovery of a new ninth planet.
Almost immediately after the announcement of scientists, various Internet prophets proclaimed that the new planet is the same planet Nibiru. It is assumed that "Nibiru" is a mythical planet that the secret government knows about, but carefully hides this fact from people, because one day "Nibiru" will pass very close to the Earth, which will provoke destructive earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, which in the end lead to the apocalypse.
And it really can be the "planet of death"
No, of course, next to the Earth, this new ninth planet is unlikely to ever pass, this is absolutely fantastic. However, there are, albeit not great, but still real chances that she may indirectly be guilty of the apocalypse.
The fact is that the huge force of attraction of this planet for gravitational maneuver can be used not only by probes and spacecraft. The same thing can happen with an asteroid. Using its gravity, the new ninth planet can literally “launch” a huge rock at us, from which we cannot dodge. Of course, the probability that this will happen in such a huge space is negligible, but still it is.
It may not exist at all.
And this is perhaps the most important, what you should know about the new ninth planet. So far no one has seen this planet. Astronomers only assume the presence of this planet, based on the statistical anomalies of the orbits of minor planets that have developed over billions of years. That is, according to the behavior of neighboring objects, which are affected by some gravitational force, scientists suggest that this force may come from a large planet. Only visual detection can confirm its existence.
However, given the fact that the planet moves very slowly and is far from Earth, this makes it very difficult to find. Brown and Batygin have already booked time on Japan's Subaru telescope at an observatory in Hawaii. Brown estimates that surveying most of the region of the sky where the planet could be located will take about five years.
Interesting Facts about the solar system
There is no “missing link” in human evolution
The term "missing link" has fallen out of circulation in scientific circles, as it is associated with the erroneous assumption that the evolutionary process is linear and goes sequentially, "along the chain." Instead, biologists use the term "last common ancestor."
Being a boss is worse than being a subordinate: Didier Desor's amazing experiment
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.
Astronomers have announced the discovery of another contender for the title of the most distant inhabitant of the solar system - the dwarf planet V774104 with a diameter of 500-1000 kilometers, located 15 billion kilometers from the Sun.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%.
Such a "coincidence," scientists explain, is like clockwork moving at different speeds 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 distance from the Sun, but Batygin and Brown believe that this will be done in the next 5 years, when its orbit will be calculated more accurately.
