An artist's conception of a distant Planet X. Photograph: Illustration by Roberto Molar Candanosa and Scott Sheppard/Courtesy of Carnegie Institution for Science
Posted on 07/26/2020 6:25:52 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
...for astronomer Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington DC, it was a much quieter affair. "It wasn't like there was a eureka moment," he says. "The evidence just built up slowly."
He's a master of understatement. Ever since he and his collaborator Chad Trujillo of Northern Arizona University, first published their suspicions about the unseen planet in 2014, the evidence has only continued to grow. Yet when asked how convinced he is that the new world, which he calls Planet X (though many other astronomers call it Planet 9), is really out there, Sheppard will only say: "I think it's more likely than unlikely to exist."
As for the rest of the astronomical community, in most quarters there is a palpable excitement about finding this world. Much of this excitement centres on the opening of a giant new survey telescope named after Vera C Rubin, the astronomer who, in the 1970s, discovered some of the first evidence for dark matter.
Scheduled to begin its full survey of the sky in 2022, the Rubin observatory could find the planet outright or provide the clinching circumstantial evidence that it's there.
Discovery of the planet would be a triumph, but also a disaster for existing theory about how the solar system was created.
"It would change everything we thought we knew about planet formation," says Sheppard, in another characteristic understatement. In truth, no one has a clue how such a large planet could form that far from the sun.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
An artist's conception of a distant Planet X. Photograph: Illustration by Roberto Molar Candanosa and Scott Sheppard/Courtesy of Carnegie Institution for Science
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Planet X. The first Black Muslim planet?
:^) I knew I liked you. ;^D
Finding a genuine planet will be a lot harder than finding “something.”
Shouldn’t it be planet IX ?
I’m cool with Pluto being a planet. Just sayin’ that the Astro-Karens that judge these things probably won’t find a new planet that fits their stringent standards! :-)
Astro-Karen sounds like something Hollywood will use.
Instead of Plan 9 from Outer Space, we are going to get Planet 9 in Outer Space.
WHAT HAPPENED TO XENIA?
WHAT HAPPENED TO XENIA?
WHAT HAPPENED TO XENIA?
They didn’t mention the theory that the planet isn’t of our Solar System and it was captured from another solar system.
Flaming globes of Sigmund!
My guess is, any planetary bodies discovered beyond Pluto will be moving in retrograde (or at the very least, at a substantial angle to the ecliptic), which is diagnostic of capture. This is analogous to the many small moons of Jupiter, and for that matter, Neptune's moon Triton.
A diagram shows the five recently-discovered moons of Jupiter that scientists need to name. (Image: © Roberto Molar Candanosa/Carnegie Institution for Science)
Pluto will always be a planet to me.
I read where one guy proposed that Planet Nine is really a small black hole.
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