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Planet X is found (kinda)!

barbos

barbos

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http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016...edium=facebook-text&utm_campaign=planetx-1988

The claim is the strongest yet in the centuries-long search for a “Planet X” beyond Neptune. The quest has been plagued by far-fetched claims and even outright quackery. But the new evidence comes from a pair of respected planetary scientists, Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, who prepared for the inevitable skepticism with detailed analyses of the orbits of other distant objects and months of computer simulations. “If you say, ‘We have evidence for Planet X,’ almost any astronomer will say, ‘This again? These guys are clearly crazy.’ I would, too,” Brown says. “Why is this different? This is different because this time we’re right.”
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barbos said:
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016...edium=facebook-text&utm_campaign=planetx-1988

The claim is the strongest yet in the centuries-long search for a “Planet X” beyond Neptune. The quest has been plagued by far-fetched claims and even outright quackery. But the new evidence comes from a pair of respected planetary scientists, Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, who prepared for the inevitable skepticism with detailed analyses of the orbits of other distant objects and months of computer simulations. “If you say, ‘We have evidence for Planet X,’ almost any astronomer will say, ‘This again? These guys are clearly crazy.’ I would, too,” Brown says. “Why is this different? This is different because this time we’re right.”
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Pretty cool, but should that not be Planet IX now? :)
This proposed planet would be far, really far, even at the perihelion. Just out luck that it appears to be close to the aphelion at this point in its 15,000 year orbit ...
 
Outlandish science claim... but posted by Barbos. No idea what to think.
 
Would not it be great if they determine its orbit exactly and find out that New Horizon will fly by it in couple of hundred years?
 
barbos said:
Would not it be great if they determine its orbit exactly and find out that New Horizon will fly by it in couple of hundred years?
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That would indeed be awesome. But would there be enough light to see much? There's radar, I guess, but can that see enough of a planet to get a picture of it?
 
Mike Brown is no slouch.

I wonder why they are looking at the shaded segment in the proposed orbit. considering how far away it may be I would imagine the time between pictures would need to be fairly far apart to detect enough motion. I wonder how much time will be needed to make the survey. I see that it has 0.23" resolution. So is that enough to find Planet X at apogee? Well I guess it may be able to see light even if it smaller than 0.23" in size.

So if it has same radius as Neptune and is 600 AU away (Neptune is 30 AU), the angular size is given by delta = (206265) d / D (arc seconds)

d =~ 5*10^7 m D=~600*1.5*10^11m

So I get about 0.1 arc seconds, 20 times narrower than Neptune of course. Not familiar with what that means for the Subaru telescope.

Also, the reflected light coming off it compared to Neptune would be (1/20)^2*(1/20)^2 = (1/400)^2 or ~~0.00000625 times the brightness of Neptune. Sounds challenging.


I like how planet hunting has moved on from blink comparators to computers.
 
in the link of the OP someone in the comments recommended it be named after a Hawaiian god as a peace offering to the natives.

But I wonder who should name it. This would be a real big deal compared to most other recent discoveries.

any info on what the team wants to call it?
 
repoman said:
in the link of the OP someone in the comments recommended it be named after a Hawaiian god as a peace offering to the natives.

But I wonder who should name it. This would be a real big deal compared to most other recent discoveries.

any info on what the team wants to call it?
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Standard practice is that planets are named after Roman gods and the actual discoverer (actual photographic proof) gets to name it. It seems that most comet discoverers name their discovered comet after themselves.

But then there are a lot of people like Zecharia Sitchin who would insist that it be named "Nibiru" and others would insist on "Marduk". Personally, I would like to see it named "Bob".
 
sitchiniswrong.com

good website actually...

This video is time marked for each of the debunking of Ancient Aliens claims.


ok, done with the derail...
 
I was just looking at the picture and realized that orbits of these small objects are obviously not random. I can't believe it took them so long to "find" it. Reminded me discovery of quasars, all that was required is to look at the spectra and don't assume anything.
 
I doubt if it would fit into the definition of a planet. It has not cleared its orbit of other objects.
 
rjh01 said:
I doubt if it would fit into the definition of a planet. It has not cleared its orbit of other objects.
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I think they relaxed this requirement. And Jupiter technically did not clear his orbit either (of Trojans) :)
 
the Trojans are absolutely dwarfed by Jupiter and are held in the L4 and L5 regions by Jupiter.

Also, this is not so new about Planet X being a good bet from those KBO orbits. I think it is at least two or three years old in some form.
 
repoman said:
the Trojans are absolutely dwarfed by Jupiter and are held in the L4 and L5 regions by Jupiter.
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True. In any case, I don't see how one can refuse object which is 10 times more massive than Earth planet status.
It's hard to clear orbit which 200 a.u. big.
Also, this is not so new about Planet X being a good bet from those KBO orbits. I think it is at least two or three years old in some form.
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Well I did not hear it. But the whole thing seems pretty trivial.
 
barbos said:
I was just looking at the picture and realized that orbits of these small objects are obviously not random. I can't believe it took them so long to "find" it. Reminded me discovery of quasars, all that was required is to look at the spectra and don't assume anything.
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When guy was saying the numbers clearly pointed to this outcome, but they weren't looking at the problem the right way.

So, is this planet a rogue planet.
 
Jimmy Higgins said:
barbos said:
I was just looking at the picture and realized that orbits of these small objects are obviously not random. I can't believe it took them so long to "find" it. Reminded me discovery of quasars, all that was required is to look at the spectra and don't assume anything.
Click to expand...
When guy was saying the numbers clearly pointed to this outcome, but they weren't looking at the problem the right way.
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Apparently someone else noticed that orbits are suspiciously nonrandom but Brown did not initially support it, then he went ahead and started looking for planet in secret. I smell deception on his part.
So, is this planet a rogue planet.
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It was formed in our solar system but then was pushed out by Jupiter and such. I understand that current understanding is that planets change their orbits a lot early on after forming.
 
So, if this planet is found at 600 AU and it is the radius of Neptune roughly, what kind of images will be possible?

Will we be able to get any chemical info?
 
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