Planet 9: There are 8 official planets in our Solar System. Is it possible that beyond Neptune there is still one more planet? The size of planet Nine is estimated to be about as big as Mars. Read on for some exciting facts about planet Nine! Including how many planets have been discovered outside our Solar System: some of them are dense as iron, but others are light and airy.
Percival Lowell was wrong many times
Planet nine: This 19th century travel writer and businessman, famous for his fortune and mustache had a book about Mars. On that basis, he decided to become an astronomer.
Over the years he would make some enthusiastic claims. First, he was convinced of the existence of Martians and believed (erroneously) that he had found them. Other scientists had detected strange lines running across the red planet.
Lowell posited that these were canals, built by a civilization in crisis in its attempt to obtain water from the ice of polar masses. He spent all his money to erect an observatory, just to get a better view.
It turned out that they were actually an optical illusion produced by the mountains and craters of Mars when viewed with poor quality telescopes. Lowell also believed that the planet Venus had spokes on its sphere, which he drew in his notes as lines on a spider’s web. (Venus has no spokes).
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Even though his assistants tried, it seems that only he was able to see this unexpected detail. They were probably the shadows cast by his iris when he looked at the sky through his telescope.
But above all else, Lowell was determined to find the ninth planet of the Solar System. A hypothetical planet to which the erratic orbits of the known planets farthest from the Sun, like Uranus and Neptune, were then attributed.
Although he was never able to capture a glimpse of that phantom mass, he spent his last 10 years working on the project.
How did Planet 9 get its name?
Who named it? “Planet Nine” is a nickname Batygin and Brown gave to their predicted object, but it is the discoverer who gets the proper naming rights. Previous searches for the long-suspected giant object beyond Neptune called it “Planet X.”
What is the location of Planet 9 in our solar system?
According to some astronomers, there’s a mysterious planet six times the size of Earth in the outer solar system.
Planet Nine should be about 56 billion miles away from the Sun on average. When viewed from that distance, the Sun would appear as another star in the perpetually dark sky.
One study published in September 2021 suggests Planet Nine is closer to the Sun than originally predicted. Though it’s still way out at 10 times the distance of the Sun to Neptune. Also, as 380 times the distance from the Sun to the Earth.
What is the distance to Planet 9? It’s likely Planet Nine is out in the cold, dark reaches of the Solar System. According to Batygin and Brown’s models, Planet Nine should be about 20 times further away from the Sun than Neptune.
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Planet status
A preliminary name has been given to it, “Planet Nine”, because there were nine planets discovered. Pluto was added to the dwarf planets in 2006 when more objects of its size and orbital characteristics were discovered. Hence, we have eight planets in our solar system, following the adoption of scientific astronomy.
Although it could fulfill the criteria for a regular planet, proving that it has cleared its orbit of small bodies would require more effort to confirm its existence. It could also represent a distinct class of solar system bodies. This may require further adjustment of the current planet criterion. Soon after Pluto’s reclassification, Brown himself said the planet should be regular.
Further speculations
In summer 2016 a number of scholars pointed out that the existence of the postulated planet with its claimed high inclination for the axis of the ekliptic of 7.2° or 8.3°. 7.2° or 8.3°. 8.3° or 7.2° could account for the variation in the solar equator level by 5.9°. In addition to the inclination of the axis, the planet must also possess a sufficient mass. Scientists at the California Institute of Technology in October said it could affect the whole solar system.
In a paper published in September 2019, the researchers suggest the object might be an old black hole. Such an object could be found in the observational data from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which will be operational in 2022.
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