Astronomers from Taiwan, Japan and Australia have announced the possible discovery of an object that could be a candidate for the iconic Ninth Planet on the far edges of the Solar System. The study, published on arXiv, is based on analyzing data from infrared telescopes that have been considered outdated for decades.
The search for “planet X” has been ongoing since 2016, when astronomers Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin from Caltech suggested: the unusual cluster of objects in the Kuiper belt behind Neptune can be explained by the gravitational influence of a massive planet. According to their calculations, it should be 6 times more massive than Earth and have an orbital period of 10,000 years. But it has not been found so far because of its extreme remoteness and invisibility due to extremely weak illumination by the Sun.
Infrared breakthrough
A team led by Terry Long Phan of Taiwan decided to “raise dust” from the archives of the IRAS (NASA, 1983) and AKARI (Japan, 2006-2007) missions. Their idea: find a slow-moving infrared object that has moved a barely noticeable distance in 23 years. After filtering out stars, galaxies, and noise, they found one candidate that did not match any known body. Its slow motion and faint emission indicate extreme remoteness – perhaps much farther away than Brown and Batygin had envisioned.
Mike Brown, one of the authors of the original hypothesis, notes: the study does not take into account the possibility that the signal found is random noise or coincidence. In addition, the object’s orbit is inconsistent with previous predictions. “If it exists, it is not the Ninth Planet, but something unexpected,” the scientist adds.
Only two points in 23 years is not enough to draw accurate conclusions. However, the authors are confident: the object is bright enough to be observed through powerful ground-based telescopes such as DECam in Chile. If the existence of a planet-like body is confirmed, it will not only change the view of the solar system, but also prove the effectiveness of retrospective methods in astronomy.
When can we expect confirmation?
Even if the object found turns out to be something else, the study disproves strange theories – such as that the Ninth Planet is a primary black hole. In addition, the discovery opens up a new way of searching – through analyzing old data that was previously considered unpromising.
The coming years could be decisive. Meanwhile, the Ninth Planet remains a scientific mystery that both annoys and inspires researchers.
Earlier we reported on how scientists came closer to discovering the ninth planet in the Solar System.
According to science.org
