Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
California Institute of Technology (Caltech) astronomer, United States, Michael Brown, said he discovered planet new to put in order solar system make replace Pluto.
Pluto was assessed not to be included in the category of planets in 2006 ago.
The number of planets in the solar system decreased in 2006 after Brown appealed to the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to redefine the notion of planets.
The appeal was made after Brown found an object called Eris in the Kuiper Belt region.
“After we found Eris, and realized that Eris was bigger than Pluto, you had to do something,” Brown said in July.
The discovery made Brown fear a spike in the number of planets when referring to the definition of a planet at the time.
Since then Pluto has been removed from the solar system and is considered a dwarf planet.
As reported Futurism, some researchers dislike the results, but they respect Brown’s opinion.
“He was wrong about Pluto,” said New Horizons Researcher from the United States Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Alan Stern.
Brown reportedly discovered a new planet which he called ‘Planet Nine’. That is an object that is many times the size of Earth and orbits the Sun further than Neptune’s orbit.
As reported NBC News, Brown never intended to eject Pluto and then find Planet Nine as a replacement. He called it a coincidence.
“If I’m great enough to have had all those ideas in the past, and then kick Pluto out and find Planet Nine, then that’s brilliant, but it’s just a coincidence,” Brown said.
Currently Brown is reportedly processing data from several astronomical surveys, and hopes to see Planet Nine sightings soon.
If the search is unsuccessful, he hopes the operation of a new large telescope at the Vera Rubin Observatory in the mountainous region of northern Chile will provide clues about Planet Nine. This telescope will enter full operation in 2023.
Brown’s current research results say Planet Nine has an elongated orbit about 380 times the distance from Earth to the Sun at perihelion or closest point.
In addition, Brown estimates Planet Nine is about six times the mass of Earth, and is composed of very cold gaseous matter like Neptune.
(lnn/ayp)
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