Using the Subaru Telescope, astronomers believe they have found evidence of Planet Nine or Planet Nine to replace Pluto in the Solar System.
Astronomer Michael Brown and astrophysicist Konstantin Batygin, two professors at the California Institute of Technology, spent years completing studies that postulated that a new, unknown planet might exist beyond Neptune's orbit.
According to the study, which will be published in an upcoming issue of "The Astronomical Journal," Brown and Batygin used the Subaru Telescope on Maunakea to observe the movement of some objects in the Kuiper Belt, a collection of cold celestial bodies outside, from the orbit of Neptune.
Quoted from West Hawaii Today, nearly 20 years ago, certain objects in the Kuiper Belt were found to have strange orbits clustered together that can only be explained by the unknown massive object affecting them, although that doesn't necessarily indicate the existence of Planet Ninth.
But in 2016, 10 years after Brown's research was used to rule out the previous Ninth Planet, Pluto, as a dwarf planet, Brown announced that he believed there was a Ninth Planet roughly 10 times the size of Earth, orbiting 20 times farther from the Sun than the Sun. Neptune.
Subaru astronomer Tsuyoshi Terai said Brown used Subaru's Hyper Suprime-Cam, a very powerful wide-field digital camera, to make observations around 30 nights between 2016 and 2019.
Although Terai says no observations have revealed Planet Ninth, by tracking 11 additional Kuiper Belt objects, Brown and Batygin have 99.6% confidence that the object's strange motion is not the result of cosmic coincidence and is caused by a large, yet unseen object.
Furthermore, according to the study, the two researchers have estimated the range of potential masses and orbital characteristics of the hypothetical planet within 95% probability.
Based on the results of 121 simulations performed during the study, Brown and Batygin concluded that Planet Ninth was most likely a gas giant with an icy and rocky core and a mass about six times the mass of Earth. The simulation also predicts, with a 95% probability, the region of the planet's sky to be found within it.
However, this planet has not been observed directly, and its existence is still conjecture. Brown and Batygin write that based on the planet's potential orbit and reflectivity, observing it directly may require a special search at telescopes 10 meters or larger.
Brown and Batygin also acknowledge that the planet's composition may be very different from their predictions, which will have a highly variable impact on their detection.
Terai said confirming the existence of Planet Nin would have a significant impact on existing models of how the Solar System formed, and would raise questions such as how the planet formed in the first place, how it ended up so far from the Sun, and how it affected the movement of objects. other skies for thousands of years. Brown believes Planet Ninth will soon be found.
"I think it (will be found) within a year or two of being detected. I have made that statement every year for the last five years. I am very optimistic," he concluded.
