Researchers have come with news of new progress in the search for Planet Nine. Knowledge of our own solar system is the first step of understanding and merely considering beginning our trek through outer space. And over the length of time things changed considerably. What was initially believed to be the ninth planet of our solar system ended up getting demoted to the status of a dwarf planet part of the Kuiper belt. Certainly that was the story of Pluto starting with the year 2006.
Pluto’s class of dwarf planets was joined by 2 more officially deemed planets bodies all the way in the outer reaches of our solar system – Haumea and Makemake – and for a long time that was considered to be the end of the planetary system. However, scientists have suspected the presence of a ninth planet for nearly a month now.
It all started when scientists noticed some strange effects happening on the outer skirts of our solar system when mathematical models and simulations would result in signs of gravitational effects of one more body, not visible to us however, onto the other objects in the Kuiper Belt. This intrigued scientists to study the phenomenon even further and theorize what kind of planet this is.
So far, Planet Nine remains a mere guess as it has never been spotted. But calculations suggest that it is a planet 10 times the mass of Earth, close in size to the exoplanets from our solar system. It was believed to be 600 times further away from the Sun than Earth is. This would result in an orbit that takes about 10,000 and 20,000 years to complete.
The evidence that supports this idea is the peculiar manner in which Kuiper Belt objects orbit around the sun. Unlike most planets that display a nearly circular orbit around the star of our solar system, the Kuiper Belt objects have wildly elongated orbits that suggest another object, and most likely one that is much larger in size, pulling on them.
Even since the discovery, scientists have been at work with trying to find a method to spot the elusive Planet Nine. Given its extremely long orbit time, narrowing down where to look for it would take ridiculous amounts of time. However, a group of scientists from France have concluded that a way of lowering the amount of sky searching they need to do to spot it is to study the data sent by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft.
The spacecraft is currently orbiting Saturn, and by ensuring that the mysterious Planet Nine is not within its visual reach, they could exclude two zones form the very beginning. Thanks to a number of mathematical models that can narrow down the planet’s currently position, scientists say that they have reduced the search area by 50%.
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Deborah Campbell
