Posted on 02/14/2011 1:30:02 PM PST by kronos77
Scientists believe they may have found a new planet in the far reaches of the solar system, up to four times the mass of Jupiter.
Its orbit would be thousands of times further from the Sun than the Earth's - which could explain why it has so far remained undiscovered.
Data which could prove the existence of Tyche, a gas giant in the outer Oort Cloud, is set to be released later this year - although some believe proof has already been garnered by Nasa with its pace telescope, Wise, and is waiting to be pored over.
A new world? Astronomers believe a huge gas giant may be within the remote Oort Cloud region
Prof Daniel Whitmire from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette believes the data may prove Tyche's existence within two years.
He told the Independent: 'If it does, [fellow astrophysicist Prof John Matese] and I will be doing cartwheels. And that's not easy at our age.'
More... Radiation particles will sterilize any baby girl being conceived in deep space, say scientists
He added he believes it will mainly be made of hydrogen and helium, with an atmosphere like Jupiter's, with spots and rings and clouds, adding: 'You'd also expect it to have moons. All the outer planets have them.'
He believes the planet is so huge, it will ahve a raised temperature left from its formation that will make it far higher than others, such as Pluto, at -73C, as 'it takes an object this size a long time to cool off'.
Isolated: The Oort Cloud, where Tyche is believed to be, is a sphere with a radius of one light year
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Looks like a good thread for this neat little gravity toy someone else posted a while back.
http://www.nowykurier.com/toys/gravity/gravity.html
I read this: “However, Tyche - if it exists - should also dislodge comets closer to home, from the inner Oort Cloud, but they have not been seen.”
Notice “if it exists”. It’s theoretical, as is the “Oort Cloud”.
Both HAVE to exist, though, for the solar system and the earth to be billions of years old, because without the Oort cloud containing “baby comets” and a body to dislodge them,
short period comets wouldn’t exist, being burned up on the first few hundred trips around the sun.
I knew he was way out there, but a planet?
this could be the fabled ‘nemesis’ that shakes loose comets to bombard us every 100 million years or so....
This would return our planet count to nine since we lost Pluto. Would this also fix the corrupted zodiac signs? I haven’t slept well since learning I’m not an Aquarian anymore. All these celestial changes are overwhelming. Sigh.
"Sure, you can call me Tyche"
find any Klingons????
The bastard is shooting at us.
I was thinking the same thing.
I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic...
In before Niburu
bflr
Another source listed its estimated distance as 15,000 astronomical units (1 AU = average distance from the earth to the sun). At that distance it would take 1.8 million years to orbit the sun, so it would have moved through less than one degree in the past 5000 years. Even if you believed that the locations of planets had any effect on people's fates, this one's effect wouldn't have changed for all of recorded history.
You just hope that NASA doesn’t send a multi-million-dollar space probe on a mission to Uranus...!
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