Astronomer: the ninth planet completed the census of the planets of the solar system. What does the new planet of the solar system look like and when will it be discovered New planet in the solar system

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.

"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 2006, Pluto was stripped of its status as the ninth planet in the solar system thanks to the efforts of one astronomer, Michael Brown. Together with his colleagues, he discovered, and then other dwarf planets far beyond the orbit of Neptune. Thus, he proved that Pluto is not remarkable and big enough to be called a full-fledged planet. However, now Brown and our compatriot Konstantin Batygin are claiming that the new Planet 9 is already almost open ... and that all that remains is to see it.

Yes, yes, no one has yet seen the “almost open” ninth planet of the solar system! In fact, its discovery is the fruit of long observations of the orbits of other planets. According to Kepler and Newton, the place of each planet in the solar system is determined by its characteristics, mainly by mass. And if the orbit does not correspond to the parameters of the planet or is generally anomalous, then it is influenced by some other, no less massive object. The first planet discovered by mathematical equations, and not live observations, was - in 1846 it was found at a place calculated by the French mathematician Urbain Le Verrier.

Moreover, the planets can influence each other very actively - in the past of the solar system they traveled hundreds of millions of kilometers, approaching and moving away from the Sun. The gas giants were especially distinguished here. In young planetary systems, they absorb all the embryos of the planets and hang close to the star - as close as Mercury. Because of this, they become very hot and become unstable. Scientists call such planets "hot Jupiters" or "hot Neptunes" - depending on their mass and size.

Troubled History of the Solar System

However, Jupiter, the largest and most influential planet, changed everything in the solar system. Initially appearing at a distance of 5 to 10 from the Sun, it provoked active collisions of scattered material in the protoplanetary disk around the star. This gave impetus to the creation of other gas giants, such as Saturn or Neptune, at distances equally close to the Sun.

However, the newly formed planets behaved "ungratefully", following the laws of gravity - they pushed their "parent" closer to the Sun, into the modern orbit of Mars. Thus, Jupiter invaded the inner part of the solar system. In other planetary systems, this part is the most saturated with matter and space objects. But the heavy tread of the mass of Jupiter scattered the embryos of planets and asteroids there, throwing them into the nuclear furnace of the Sun or throwing them to the outskirts of the system in the zone of modern and.

If not for Saturn, which connected Jupiter with an orbital resonance and did not bring it into a modern orbit, the gas giant could completely ruin the solar system, throwing out 99% of the planetary matter from it. However, his travels did not go unnoticed - so Neptune and Uranus changed their orbits, forming most of the long-period comets.

Ultimately, an unusual balance reigned in the solar planetary system - gas giants that form near the star ended up on the outskirts, and "solid planets" like the Earth migrated closer to the Sun. However, some astronomers believed that another planet was needed to achieve such a balance - and one massive enough to influence the large Neptune and Uranus. It, Planet X, was searched for by many astronomers for a century and a half - and it seems that Brown and Batygin finally got close to it.

History of the search for planet X

After Le Verrier calculated Neptune from perturbations in Uranus's orbit, astronomers found that even its presence did not explain the features of the ice giant's orbit. For some time they tried to find another planet that could influence the last large objects of the solar system - however, they managed to find only Pluto, which, by mass and direction of the orbit, could not disturb larger bodies in any way. The issue of Uranus-Neptune anomalies was finally resolved by "", who measured the mass of Neptune in 1989 and thereby found that there are no contradictions in the orbits.

By that time, the power of telescopes had grown significantly, which allowed astronomers to look into the depths of the solar system. Many trans-Neptunian objects have been discovered - dwarf planets and large asteroids, whose closest orbital point is further from the Sun than Neptune. So, in 2005, the already mentioned Eris was discovered, the second largest dwarf planet after Pluto. And in 2003 they found an object with diameters over 2 thousand kilometers, which moves away from the Sun at a distance of 1.4 × 10 11 km - further than any large trans-Neptunian object! It soon acquired a whole family of "sednoids", isolated trans-Neptunian objects with similar characteristics.

The ninth planet - where and why?

Observing the newly discovered planetoids, astronomers C. Trujillo and S. Sheppard, colleagues, discovered an interesting pattern. Most of them have elongated, comet-like orbits that briefly come "close" to the Sun, at a distance of 40 to 70 astronomical units, and then move away for hundreds or even thousands of years. And the larger the object, the stronger its removal. In addition, the sednoids deviated from the Sun in the same direction.

Such a coincidence could be an accident, if we are talking about simple comets - over the billions of years of the history of the solar system, they were scattered by all the major planets, especially the already mentioned "travelers" Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune. However, for such a coincidence in the deviations of large objects, a very large planet is needed, whose orbit would reach the Oort cloud.

Here Brown and Batygin distinguished themselves - by comparing the orbital characteristics of sednoids, they found mathematically that the probability of their random coincidence is only 0.007%. Scientists went further and compiled a computer model aimed at finding the characteristics of the planet, capable of changing the orbits of bodies located beyond Neptune. The data they received in January 2016 became the basis for the announcement of the pre-discovery of a new planet in the solar system.

Characteristics of Planet X

In his interviews, Brown claims that the probability of finding a new planet is 90%. However, until it is actually discovered, with the help of a telescope, it is too early to talk about the final discovery. Nevertheless, the calculated characteristics of Planet 9 have been published - they will be used in future searches.

• The orbital parameters of Planet X will be mirrored to those of the sednoids - the planet's orbit will still be elongated and inclined relative to the plane of the main planets of the solar system, but directed in the opposite direction. Accordingly, the perihelion of the planet - the point of maximum approach to the Sun - will be 200 astronomical units at the nearest point, and the aphelion - the maximum distance - will reach 1200 astronomical units. This is even more than Sedna! A year on Planet 9 will last up to 20,000 Earth years, which is how long it may take to complete the entire orbit.

A planet distant from the Sun is difficult to detect - this requires telescopes operating in the infrared spectrum, or powerful optical devices that can capture even the smallest sun glare on the surface. On infrared telescopes, work will move faster, but errors are possible - and on optical telescopes, the result will be reliable, albeit at the cost of time. The WISE Infrared Orbiting Telescope, which conducted broadband surveys in 2009, has yet to detect Planet X, although it has provided fairly detailed images.

Therefore, Brown, Batygin and other astronomers plan to find it using the Subaru telescop in the Hawaiian Islands, which is considered one of the largest and highest quality in the world - the diameter of its main mirror exceeds 8 meters! In addition, it is capable of operating both in the optical and in the infrared ranges of light. But even with such a tool, it will take scientists at least 5 years to put an end to the issue of Planet X.

Astronomers Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena on the discovery of a candidate for the ninth planet of the solar system outside the orbit of Pluto. The find may become one of the most sensational in the current decade, comparable to the discovery of a new continent on Earth. The results of the search for Planet X, the authors published in The Astronomical Journal. Science News and Nature News briefly talk about them.

What was discovered

Planet X is an object the size of Neptune and ten times the mass of the Earth. The celestial body revolves around the Sun in a highly elongated and inclined orbit with a period of 15 thousand years. The closest distance between the Sun and Planet X is 200 astronomical units (that's seven times the distance between Neptune and the star), and the maximum is estimated at 600-1200 astronomical units. This brings the object's orbit out of the Kuiper Belt, where Pluto is located, towards the Oort Cloud.

Why the ninth planet

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) definition of a planet applies only to celestial bodies in the solar system. According to it, a rounded massive body is considered a planet, having cleared the vicinity of its orbit from a large number of smaller bodies. The IAU officially recognizes the existence of five dwarf planets. One of them (Ceres) is located in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, others (Pluto, Eris, Makemake and Haumea) are beyond the orbit of Neptune. The largest of them is Pluto.

In total, there are eight planets in the solar system, according to the IAU. The largest and most massive of them is Jupiter. Pluto, by decision of the IAU in 2006, ceased to be considered a planet, since it does not meet one of the criteria that determines it (the dominance of its orbit in space). So far, astronomers have discovered more than 40 dwarf planet candidates. Scientists estimate that there may be more than two thousand dwarf planets in the solar system, of which 200 are located within the Kuiper belt (at a distance of 30 to 55 astronomical units from the Sun). The rest are outside of it.

The definition of a planet as a dwarf one is controversial among scientists. In particular, the dimensions of the celestial body can play a decisive role in this case. Planet X, being the fifth in mass and size of the celestial body of the solar system known to science, certainly cannot be considered a dwarf. The unusual orbit and origin of Planet X may lead to a revision of the IAU definition of a dwarf planet.

Image: NASA / JPL-CALTECH

How they opened

The existence of Planet X was suspected in 2014. Then Chadwick Trujillo from the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii and Scott Sheppard from the Carnegie Institution in Washington published an article in Nature, where they reported the discovery at a distance of 80 astronomical units (Pluto is 48 astronomical units from the Sun) from the Sun of the trans-Neptunian object 2012 VP113. In their work, astronomers also suggested that at a distance of 250 astronomical units from the star there is a planet larger than the Earth.

Observer astronomer Brown and computer astronomy expert Batygin decided to refute Trujillo and Sheppard's data. But it turned out differently. Scientists have discovered a new planet by analyzing data on its gravitational effects on other celestial bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. Among them, in particular, is the candidate for the dwarf planet Sedna discovered in 2003 by Brown, Trujillo and David Rabinowitz. Computer modeling and theoretical calculations carried out by Brown and Batygin explain the results of observations by the existence of Planet X. Astronomers estimate the probability of error in their conclusions at 0.007 percent.

How Planet X Came to Be

Astronomers cannot yet give an exact answer to the question of the origin of Planet X. They tend to the following hypothesis. At the dawn of the existence of the solar system, there were five large protoplanets, four of which formed modern Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. However, about three million years after their birth, the gravity of the first two celestial bodies threw Protoplanet X out of the orbit of Neptune.

Structure and composition of Planet X

The origin of Planet X suggests that it was originally similar to the ice giants Uranus and Neptune. The latter is 17 times heavier than the Earth, and its diameter is four times greater than that of the Blue Planet. Uranus and Neptune are classified as ice giants. Their atmosphere consists of gases (hydrogen, helium and hydrocarbons) and ice particles (water, ammonia and methane). Under the atmosphere of the giants is a mantle of water, ammonia and methane ice, under which lies a solid core of metals, silicates and ice. Planet X may have a similar core and mantle without a dense atmosphere.

Criticism

The celestial mechanic Alessandro Morbidelli from Nice acted as a referent for the work of scientists in The Astronomical Journal. He was optimistic about the chances of the discovery of Planet X by astronomers Brown and Batygin. Last but not least - thanks to the authority of scientists. Planetary scientist Hal Levison from Colorado was skeptical about the work of colleagues, citing the haste of Brown and Batygin's conclusions and the need for further verification. As the discoverers of Planet X themselves note, astronomers will believe in their discovery only when they can observe the planet through a telescope.

What's next

To detect Planet X, astronomers have booked time at Japan's Subaru Observatory in Hawaii. Trujillo and Sheppard will compete in the search for the planet with scientists. Confirmation of the existence of a celestial body can take up to five years. If discovered, the object could become the ninth planet in the solar system. Earlier searches for Planet X in the solar system led scientists to discover Neptune (in 1864) and Pluto (in 1930). There is little doubt that the existence of a ninth planet will be confirmed.

"She's huge"

The discoverer of the ninth planet of the solar system about a new cosmic body

Photo: R. Hurt / Infrared Processing and Analysis Center / Courtesy of California Institute of Technology / AP

The discovery of the ninth planet in the solar system by two astronomers from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena became known on January 20. One of them - a native of Russia Konstantin Batygin - told Lente.ru about the search for Planet X, the difficulties with the name of a new celestial body and the unsolved mysteries of the solar system.

"Lenta.ru": What is the planet you discovered?

: It does not fall into the category of dwarf planets. This celestial body is quite massive. Our model gives a mass of about ten Earth's, this planet is simply gigantic. It is now defined as a celestial object whose gravitational field dominates that part of the solar system.

In general, there is not even a question: is it a planet or not. We know about it because its gravity affects the orbits of distant objects in the Kuiper belt. The very mathematical modeling relies on this planet having enough mass to dominate the solar system gravitationally.

What about its physical properties?

Calculations, unfortunately, give us only the mass and general characteristics. We can only assume that it is similar in chemical composition to Uranus or Neptune. More precisely, we will say something when a device like New Horizons is sent to the planet. Although the flight is far, and it will take a very long time to wait.

Where did Planet X come from?

We believe that it formed in the first three million years of the solar system, that is, about 4.5 billion years ago, from about the same material as Uranus and Neptune. While the solar system was still shrouded in a gas cloud, this planet was gravitationally scattered into a longer orbit.

Were you guided by Chadwick Trujillo and Scott Sheppard's observations of trans-Neptunian object 2012 VP113 in 2004?

We relied on their work. What they found is called the perihelion argument of many orbits in the Kuiper belt. It turns out that this is only part of the story. The reality is an order of magnitude simpler and more fundamental: further orbits in the Kuiper belt look in approximately the same direction. Their physical orbits are almost the same. And it was this fundamental moment that led to the fact that we were able to calculate the orbit of "Planet 9".

Image: NASA / JPL-CALTECH

How fast do you hope to find a planet with the Subaru telescope? Your colleagues, such as Professor Hal Levison, are looking forward to direct observations.

In principle, we get results from one night of observations fairly quickly. The problem is that you need a lot of nights: you need to examine a fairly large part of the sky. So I think if we integrate, we have to spend two or three years to find the planet that we predicted.

Does this planet have moons?

We think so. My colleagues and I agree that there are no reasons that would prevent this. Can they be seen with a telescope? Maybe. But it's difficult...

Have you thought about what to name the new planet?

Mike Brown and I (Mike Brown, co-author of Konstantin Batygin - approx. "Tapes.ru") we believe that it is better to entrust the world community. It's not for the two of us to decide. Again, we have not thought about this yet: we have a theoretical model, but the planet has not been found astronomically.

Could there be other planets in the solar system?

I guess, yes. There is nothing that contradicts such a possibility. But at the moment we do not have any data indicating that, in addition to the ninth planet, there is something else.

When will observational astronomy put an end to this story?

Good question. By the middle of the 20th century, it seemed that observational astronomy had completed its work in the solar system. It turned out that this was not the case.

In principle, the solar system is huge, the gravitational field of the Sun dominates very far: the dominant ends somewhere after a hundred thousand astronomical units, and we see small objects in the Kuiper belt at a distance of a maximum of eighty astronomical units. There is still a huge area unknown.

Three major telescopes are being built on Earth at once: the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) and the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). Will they be useful in such research?

The projects you mentioned are certainly important. However, to search for planets like ours, telescopes like Subaru, whose camera is made to cover most of the sky, are more suitable. The same TMT will be good for characterization and bad for search.

What if the discovery of the ninth planet is not confirmed?

The most dramatic precedent is the discovery of Neptune in 1846 by Urban Le Verrier, who used mathematical models similar to those we have today. But our model is an order of magnitude more detailed and complex: it uses supercomputers.

And Le Verrier's calculations were confirmed in one night of observations.

Do you maintain contacts with Russian colleagues?

I lived in Russia until 1994, after which I moved with my family to Japan and then to the USA. I am mainly a theorist, sometimes I communicate by e-mail with colleagues from Russia and Russians working in the US and other countries.

I don't read Russian media because I don't have enough time. I try to do only science. I can say that Russia remains strong in theoretical science: there are many good scientists. The story of Mikhail Lidov comes to mind, who in the 1950s calculated the effect now called the Lidov-Kozai resonance. People did not understand for a long time how important this effect is. Lidov was decades ahead of mankind, and there are still such scientists in Russia.