Illustration of the dwarf planet Sedna at the outer edge of the known solar system. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC)
SPACE — Among the many far-reaching mysteries of our solar system is the path of an egg-shaped dwarf planet called 90377 Sedna. It is called very mysterious because it has an orbit of 11,400 years, one of the longest orbits in the solar system. Such an orbit takes the dwarf planet to a distance of 11.3 billion km from the sun.
The orbit also carries it out of the solar system and through the Kuiper Belt for 140 billion km, and eventually carries it into the shell of an icy body known as the Oort cloud. Since the discovery of Sedna in 2003, astronomers have struggled to explain how such worlds could have formed in seemingly empty regions of space. In fact, it is too far away for the influence of the giant planets in the solar system, as well as the Milky Way galaxy itself.
A new study suggests that Earth-like planets so far undetected. Meanwhile, hovering in the region, and possibly deviating from the orbit of Sedna and some similar trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), are simply countless icy bodies. The giant iceberg orbits the sun at a great distance.
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“Many TNOs have oddly tilted, egg-shaped orbits, possibly due to being tugged by hidden planets,” the astronomers said.
Two Japanese researchers used computer simulations to analyze the impact of an undiscovered planet’s existence on TNOs. The simulation, which includes the evolution of a number of real and model TNOs in the farthest region of the icy region, known as the Kuiper Belt, yields the extreme orbits observed for Sedna and other TNOs.
“(If any) such a planet is between 1.5 and three times the size of Earth and is located between 23 billion miles (37 billion km) to 46 billion miles (74 billion km) from the sun,” the astronomers said.
“It makes perfect sense that an ancient object could have survived in the distant Kuiper Belt, as many similar objects existed in the early solar system.”
Quest for the Hidden Ninth Planet
Searching for planets lurking at the cold edge of our solar system is not a new concept. The hypothesis is that the planet, called Planet Nine, is a world 10 times larger than Earth. It is thought to be responsible for at least five strange features in the solar system, including the strange orbital tilt of some Kuiper Belt objects.
This theoretical ball has attracted the attention of many people, but remains undetected. But research suggests if Planet Nine is out there, it could be somewhere between 59 billion km to 119 billion km from the sun.
Although the possibility of a Planet Nine has received significant attention from research groups around the world, this theory has also been the subject of controversy. Some astronomers argue that the TNO’s highly eccentric orbit, which considers the presence of Planet Nine necessary, could occur without the hidden planet present.
In 2021, an independent study stated, the data used by the team behind the discovery paper that first theorized Planet Nine was biased. They also concluded the possibility of the existence of such a planet was remote.
According to the new study, compared to Planet Nine, the new hypothesized “Kuiper Belt Planet (KBP)” will be much closer and more influential in the orbits of Kuiper Belt objects, especially those beyond a distance of 7 billion km. It needs to be reiterated that KBP has not been seen directly or indirectly. If the KBP orbits within 54 billion km, the authors say there is a 90 percent chance of detecting it in the sky.
However, more information about the structure of objects on the edge of the Kuiper Belt is needed to reveal or rule out the presence of KBPs.
The research is described in a paper published Aug. 25 in The Astronomical Journal. Source: LiveScience
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2023-09-07 11:14:01
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