Found a new planet in the solar system. What does the new planet of the solar system look like and when will it be discovered. Evidence for Planet X

Two American astronomers, one of whom is a native of Russia, on Tuesday stunned the scientific world after sensational news spread around the media: on the outskirts solar system they discovered the ninth planet! The first news about this was published by the California Institute of Technology, where both scientists work - and Mike, later - authoritative scientific journals science and nature.

“She will be the real ninth planet. Since ancient times, only two real planets have been found, and this will be the third. It's a big part of our solar system that has gone undetected, and that's amazing," says Brown.

The planet is said to have been found by mathematical analysis perturbations experienced by many icy bodies from the so-called Kuiper Belt - a huge region of space beyond the orbit of Pluto. Calculations showed that the planet revolves around the Sun at a distance of 20 orbits of Neptune, its mass is 10 times the mass of the Earth.

Due to such a distance from the Sun, the planet is not visible and makes a complete revolution around the Sun in 10-20 thousand years.

“Although we were initially skeptical that this planet could exist, as we continued to explore its orbit, we became more and more confident that it really is there,” Batygin said.

The calculated mass of the object leaves no doubt that it can be attributed to the planet with full confidence, because it is 5 thousand times heavier than Pluto! Unlike a huge number of small objects in the solar system, such as dwarf planets, the ninth planet gravitationally dominates the extended region of the Kuiper Belt, where it rotates. Moreover, this area is much larger and the spaces dominated by all the other known planets of the solar system.

This, in Brown's words, makes it "the most planetary of the planets in the solar system."

Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin

The work of scientists, which may become epoch-making, entitled "Evidence for a Distant Giant Planet in the Solar System" is published in the journal Astronomical Journal. In it, the authors find an explanation for many previously discovered features in the movement of icy bodies in the Kuiper Belt.

The search for the planet began in 2014, when a former student of Brown published a paper claiming that 13 of the most distant Kuiper Belt objects had similar oddities in their motion. Then a version of the existence of a nearby small planet was proposed. Brown then did not support this version, but continued the calculations. Together with Batygin, they began a year and a half project to study the orbits of these bodies.

Caltech/R.Hurt (IPAC)

Quite soon, Batygin and Brown realized that the orbits of six of these objects pass close to the same region of space, despite the fact that all orbits are different. “It's like looking at six clocks on six hands that are running at different speeds, and at that moment they show the same time. The probability of this is about 1/100,” explains Brown. In addition, it turned out that the orbits of all six bodies are inclined at an angle of 30 degrees to the plane of the ecliptic. “Actually, this could not be accidental. So we began to look for what formed these orbits, ”the astronomer explained.

Almost by accident, scientists noticed that if you put a heavy planet into the calculations,

whose perihelion is 180 degrees from the perihelion of these six bodies (that is, the Sun itself is between them), then its perturbations will explain the observed picture.

“It was a healthy reaction - such a geometry is impossible, orbits cannot be stable for a long time, because in the end this will lead to a collision of objects,” Batygin believes. However, the mechanism known in celestial mechanics as resonances of mean motions does not allow this to happen: objects, approaching each other, exchange energy and fly apart.

For every four revolutions of the ninth planet, there are nine revolutions of those same objects, and they never collide. As is often the case in astronomy, the hypothesis was confirmed when the assumption it predicted was confirmed. It turned out that the trans-Neptunian object Sedna, discovered in 2003 by Brown, Trujillo and Rabinowitz, and another similar object 2012 VP113 do deviate their orbits slightly where predicted. But the main assumption that came true is the existence, thanks to a heavy planet in the Kuiper Belt, of objects whose rotation plane is completely perpendicular to the plane of the solar system.

It turned out that over the past three years, astronomers have found at least four such objects whose orbits correspond to predictions.

Where did the planet hidden in the depths of the Kuiper Belt come from? Scientists believe that there were originally four cores in the solar system that formed Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. “However, there could have been five,” says Brown. This fifth protoplanet, coming too close to Jupiter or Saturn, could be thrown into a distant eccentric orbit.

According to scientists, if the planet is now close to its perihelion, you can look for it in past surveys of the sky. If she managed to leave, telescopes like 10-meter instruments at the Keck Observatory can catch her,

after all, the planet never approaches the Sun at a distance closer than 200 orbits of the Earth.

Among scientists there is no consensus about the discovery. , a body dynamics specialist from Nice, is sure that this planet exists. But not everyone thinks so. “I have seen many, many statements like this in my career. And they all turned out to be wrong, ”says Hal Levison, a planetary scientist at the Institute in Boulder (Colorado).

Until 2009, Pluto was considered the ninth planet of the solar system, discovered in 1930 also thanks to the analysis of the disturbances it created. Pluto has been demoted to a dwarf planet by the International Astronomical Union. Recently, some astronomers have created a movement to return it to planetary status following the discoveries made by the New Horizons probe.
One of the first interviews Konstantin Batygin gave to the correspondent of Gazeta.Ru.

- Konstantin, the search for bodies in the Kuiper Belt is not a very popular topic among astronomers, how many people are doing this?
“There are a little over a hundred people in the world, I think. It turned out that the most distant objects in the solar system, in physical space, look in the same direction. And the only theoretically correct model that we could construct is one where their orbits are held by the gravity of one planet.

- What are the prospects for finding a planet with telescopes?
“I think it can be done in the next two to five years. This requires knowledge of the orbit and sufficient observational time on telescopes. Knowing the orbit is what we've been doing in this article. To find it, you need to know where to look. On the this moment we know only the nearest part of it.

— I know that you were born in Moscow. How did you end up in the USA?
- We lived in Russia until 1994, in Moscow I finished the 1st grade. We moved to Japan, lived there for six years, where I studied from grades 3 to 6, and skipped the second grade because I was too tall. Then he studied at the Russian school at the embassy in Tokyo. Moved to California in 1999 where I graduated high school, university and graduate school at Caltech.

- Good luck, we hope that your discovery will be confirmed, and we will see your last name in textbooks!
- Thanks.

Remember all sorts of conspiracy theories about, but it turns out that another planet still exists. Well, at least with a probability of 99.993.

And here's how it happened.

Astronomers Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin from California Institute of Technology in Pasadena reported the discovery of an object the size of Neptune, which is 10 times heavier than the Earth, outside the orbit of Pluto. The authors published the results of the search for Planet X in The Astronomical Journal, and Science News briefly talks about them.

The planet revolves around the Sun in an elongated orbit (and in a plane inclined relative to the Earth's orbit) with a period of 15 thousand years. Her chemical composition similar to those of the gas giants Uranus and Neptune. According to Brown and Batygin, the object was knocked out of the protoplanetary disk near the Sun 4.5 billion years ago.

The nearest distance between the Sun and the detected object is 200 astronomical units (this is seven times the distance between Neptune and the star). The maximum removal of Planet X is estimated at 600-1200 astronomical units, which brings its orbit beyond the Kuiper belt, in which Pluto is located.

The referent of the work of scientists in The Astronomical Journal was the planetary scientist Michael Brown, who, together with colleagues in 2003, discovered the dwarf planet Sedna, which makes a full revolution around the Sun in 11.4 thousand years. The specialist was optimistic about the chances of the discovery of Planet X by Brown and Batygin.

Scientists have discovered a new planet by analyzing data on the gravitational perturbation it exerts on other celestial bodies. As Brown and Batygin note, astronomers will believe in their discovery when they can observe the planet through a telescope. To do this, they reserved time at the Japanese Subaru Observatory in Hawaii.

Confirmation of the existence of a celestial body will take five years. If discovered, the object could become the ninth planet in the solar system. The error probability Brown and Batygin estimate at 0.007 percent. Earlier searches for Planet X in the solar system led scientists to discover Neptune (in 1864) and Pluto (in 1930).

Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin, Photo by Popular Science

But back in 2012, according to the calculations of an astronomer from Brazil, there is a rather large space object beyond the orbit of Neptune, which can be recognized as the ninth planet.

With such an assumption, an astronomer from the National Observatory of Brazil Rodney da Silva Gomes made. He drew attention to the deviation from the given calculations of the orbits of six Kuiper belt objects, among which the contender for the title of a dwarf planet is Sedna.

According to him, there are several explanations for the unusual behavior of some objects in the belt. The simplest is the existence of a large body, a planet that changes their orbits with its gravity.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Michael Brown specializes in finding distant objects

Caltech scientists Michael Brown and Konstantin Batygin have provided evidence for the existence of a giant planet in the solar system, located even further from the Sun than Pluto.

The researchers reported that they have not yet been able to see it through a telescope. According to them, the planet was discovered when studying the movement of small celestial bodies in deep space.

The mass of the celestial body is about 10 times the mass of the Earth, but scientists have yet to verify its existence.

Institute astronomers have only a rough idea of ​​where the planet might be in the starry sky, and no doubt their suggestion will launch a campaign to find it.

"There are many telescopes on Earth theoretically capable of finding it. I really hope that now, after our announcement, people around the world will start looking for the ninth planet," said Michael Brown.

Elliptical orbit

According to scientists, the space object is about 20 times farther from the Sun than Neptune, which is 4.5 billion km away.

Unlike the almost circular orbits of other planets in the Solar System, this object is supposed to move in an elliptical orbit, and a complete revolution around the Sun takes from 10 thousand to 20 thousand years.

Scientists have studied the movement of objects consisting mainly of ice in the Kuiper Belt. Pluto is in this belt.

The researchers noticed a certain location of some bodies in the Belt, in particular such large objects as Sedna and 2012 VP113. In their opinion, this can only be explained by the presence of an unknown large space object.

Image copyright AFP Image caption The idea of ​​the existence of the so-called Planet X, located on the periphery of the solar system, has been discussed in scientific circles for more than 100 years.

"All the most distant objects move in the same direction on an inexplicable trajectory, and we realized that the only explanation for this is the existence of a large, distant planet that holds them together as they orbit the Sun," Brown said.

Planet X

The idea of ​​the existence of the so-called Planet X, located on the periphery of the solar system, has been discussed in scientific circles for more than 100 years. She is remembered and then forgotten.

The current speculation is of particular interest because of the study's lead author.

Brown specializes in finding distant objects, and it was his discovery of the dwarf planet Eris in the Kuiper Belt in 2005 that caused Pluto to lose planetary status a year later.

Then it was assumed that Eris is slightly larger than Pluto, but now it has become clear that it is slightly smaller than it.

Researchers studying distant objects in the solar system have been speculating for some time on the possibility of a planet the size of Mars or Earth due to the size and shape of the planets in the Kuiper Belt. But until you can see the planet through a telescope, the idea of ​​​​its existence will be perceived with skepticism.

The study by Michael Brown and Konstantin Batygin was published in the Astronomical Journal.

In January 2016, scientists announced that there might be another planet in the solar system. Many astronomers are looking for it, studies so far lead to ambiguous conclusions. Nevertheless, the discoverers of Planet X are confident in its existence. talks about the latest results of work in this direction.

On the possible detection of Planet X beyond the orbit of Pluto, astronomers and Konstantin Batygin from the California Institute of Technology (USA). The ninth planet of the solar system, if it exists, is about 10 times heavier than the Earth, and in its properties resembles Neptune, a gas giant, the most distant known planet revolving around our star.

According to the authors, the period of revolution of Planet X around the Sun is 15 thousand years, its orbit is highly elongated and inclined relative to the plane of the earth's orbit. The maximum distance from the Sun of Planet X is estimated at 600-1200 astronomical units, which brings its orbit beyond the Kuiper belt, in which Pluto is located. The origin of Planet X is unknown, but Brown and Batygin believe that this cosmic object was knocked out of a protoplanetary disk near the Sun 4.5 billion years ago.

Astronomers discovered this planet theoretically by analyzing the gravitational perturbation it exerts on other celestial bodies in the Kuiper belt - the trajectories of six large trans-Neptunian objects (that is, located beyond the orbit of Neptune) turned out to be combined into one cluster (with similar perihelion arguments, ascending node longitude and inclination). Brown and Batygin initially estimated the probability of error in their calculations at 0.007 percent.

Where exactly is Planet X - it is not known which part celestial sphere should be tracked by telescopes - it is not clear. The celestial body is located so far from the Sun that it is extremely difficult to notice its radiation with modern means. And the evidence for the existence of Planet X, based on its gravitational influence on celestial bodies in the Kuiper belt, is only circumstantial.

Video: caltech / YouTube

In June 2017, astronomers from Canada, the UK, Taiwan, Slovakia, the US, and France searched for Planet X using the Outer Solar System Origins Survey (OSSOS) catalog of trans-Neptunian objects. The elements of the orbit of eight trans-Neptunian objects were studied, the movement of which Planet X would have to influence - the objects would be grouped in a certain way (clustered) according to their inclinations. Among the eight objects, four are considered for the first time, all of them are more than 250 astronomical units away from the Sun. It turned out that the parameters of one object, 2015 GT50, do not fit into the clustering, which cast doubt on the existence of Planet X.

However, the discoverers of Planet X believe that the 2015 GT50 does not contradict their calculations. As Batygin noted, numerical modeling of the dynamics of the solar system, including Planet X, shows that outside the semi-major axis of 250 astronomical units, there should be two clusters of celestial bodies whose orbits are aligned by Planet X: one is stable, the second is metastable. Although the 2015 GT50 object is not included in any of these clusters, it is still reproduced by the simulation.

Batygin believes that there may be several such objects. Probably, the position of the minor semiaxis of Planet X is connected with them. The astronomer emphasizes that since the publication of data on Planet X, not six, but 13 trans-Neptunian objects indicate its existence, of which 10 celestial bodies belong to a stable cluster.

While some astronomers doubt Planet X, others are finding new evidence in its favor. Spanish scientists Carlos and Raul de la Fuente Marcos investigated the parameters of the orbits of comets and asteroids in the Kuiper belt. The detected anomalies in the movement of objects (correlations between the longitude of the ascending node and inclination) are easily explained, according to the authors, by the presence of a massive body in the solar system, the semi-major axis of the orbit of which is 300-400 astronomical units.

Moreover, in the solar system there may be not nine, but ten planets. Recently, astronomers from the University of Arizona (USA) discovered another celestial body in the Kuiper belt, with dimensions and mass close to Mars. Calculations show that the hypothetical tenth planet is at a distance of 50 astronomical units from the star, and its orbit is inclined to the ecliptic plane by eight degrees. The celestial body perturbs known objects from the Kuiper belt and, most likely, was closer to the Sun in ancient times. Experts note that the observed effects are not explained by the influence of Planet X, located much further than the "second Mars".

Currently, about two thousand trans-Neptunian objects are known. With the introduction of new observatories, in particular LSST (Large Synoptic Survey Telescope) and JWST (James Webb Space Telescope), scientists plan to bring the number of known objects in the Kuiper belt and beyond to 40,000. This will allow not only to determine the exact parameters of the trajectories of trans-Neptunian objects and, as a result, indirectly prove (or disprove) the existence of Planet X and the “second Mars”, but also directly detect them.