Astronomers continue to search for the mysterious “Ninth planet”, which, in their opinion, can exist almost at the outermost boundary of our Solar system. Although scientists still have not found direct evidence of its existence, the Treasury indirect signs pointing to the possibility of its existence is updated again, according to Popular Mechanics.
That at the external borders of our system can “hide” another planet, or at least an object the size of a planet, the scientists began to suspect in 2016. American astronomers Mike brown and Konstantin Batygin conducted surveillance of several of the most remote objects (asteroids and comets) in the Solar system and found that they all behave very strange.
A large international team of astronomers has used observations of the experiment Dark Energy Survey to find new TRANS-Neptunian object 2015 BP519. Scientists estimate that this object has an extremely elongated orbit with small and large radii, reaching 35 862 astronomical units (1 a.e. = distance from Earth to the Sun). In addition, as the researchers note, 2015 BP519 orbit is tilted relative to the plane of the orbits of the planets of the Solar system by as much as 54 degrees.
If the object were not captured during interstellar travel attraction of the Sun, he, like the vast majority of other TRANS-Neptunian objects, formed together with the Solar system and the orbit it should be in a common plane.
Astronomers several years conducted a computer simulation, but none of them were able to explain the evolution of the orbit of the body. Calculations show that give it such a sharp slope couldn’t gravity any of the known planets in the Solar system — and perhaps it is due to the influence of the mysterious “Ninth planet”.
If “the Ninth planet” does exist, then it’s going to be very difficult. According to scientists, its orbit several times farther than Pluto’s orbit (and may go beyond the Solar system), so the object really can’t see terrestrial telescopes. In addition, scientists do not know exactly where to look.
The proposed new confirmation of the existence of the ninth planet in the Solar system
Nikolai Khizhnyak