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Post by matador on Jan 20, 2016 14:09:26 GMT -6
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Post by lowell on Jan 20, 2016 23:29:57 GMT -6
It is calculated to be in a highly elliptical orbit. What that means is that it will eventually be much closer to the Earth. The scientist says that he thinks it is large enough to see now with telescopes and he is urging astronomers to begin looking for it. It is mathematically shown to exist by the movements of certain objects in the Kuiper belt. To be specific, there are the movements of nine objects that are explained by its existence. It is calculated to have a mass about 10 times that of Earth. "And indeed Planet Nine's existence helps explain more than just the alignment of the distant Kuiper Belt objects. It also provides an explanation for the mysterious orbits that two of them trace. The first of those objects, dubbed Sedna, was discovered by Brown in 2003. Unlike standard-variety Kuiper Belt objects, which get gravitationally "kicked out" by Neptune and then return back to it, Sedna never gets very close to Neptune. A second object like Sedna, known as 2012 VP113, was announced by Trujillo and Sheppard in 2014. Batygin and Brown found that the presence of Planet Nine in its proposed orbit naturally produces Sedna-like objects by taking a standard Kuiper Belt object and slowly pulling it away into an orbit less connected to Neptune." "A predicted consequence of Planet Nine is that a second set of confined objects should also exist. These objects are forced into positions at right angles to Planet Nine and into orbits that are perpendicular to the plane of the solar system. Five known objects (blue) fit this prediction precisely." Credit: Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC) [Diagram was created using WorldWide Telescope.] "But the real kicker for the researchers was the fact that their simulations also predicted that there would be objects in the Kuiper Belt on orbits inclined perpendicularly to the plane of the planets. Batygin kept finding evidence for these in his simulations and took them to Brown. 'Suddenly I realized there are objects like that,' recalls Brown. In the last three years, observers have identified four objects tracing orbits roughly along one perpendicular line from Neptune and one object along another. 'We plotted up the positions of those objects and their orbits, and they matched the simulations exactly,' says Brown. 'When we found that, my jaw sort of hit the floor.' " " 'When the simulation aligned the distant Kuiper Belt objects and created objects like Sedna, we thought this is kind of awesome—you kill two birds with one stone,' says Batygin. 'But with the existence of the planet also explaining these perpendicular orbits, not only do you kill two birds, you also take down a bird that you didn't realize was sitting in a nearby tree.' " - See more at: www.caltech.edu/news/caltech-researchers-find-evidence-real-ninth-planet-49523#sthash.sNH71aXJ.dpuf
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Post by lowell on Jan 21, 2016 11:48:51 GMT -6
One of the first things that occurred to me was the fable of the planet Nibiru. Wouldn't it be wild if this is a rocky planet?
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