2024-04-13 13:39:19
There are many dwarf planets at the edge of our solar system. But Japanese researchers claim to have made another discovery there.
A previously unknown, Earth-like planet could be hiding at the edge of our solar system. A group of researchers published corresponding observations behind the planet Neptune – the planet most distant from the sun – in “The Astronomical Journal”.
The scientists had looked at objects in the Kuiper Belt, a collection of so-called dwarf planets such as Pluto and Eris. There are also said to be many comets and little-researched so-called Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) here. One of these, called Sedna, is made largely of ice and is reddish in color. It was discovered back in 2003 and was already a planet candidate.
Only a new planet explains anomalies
But now the researchers led by astronomer Patryk Sofia Lykawka made a new observation. Its orbit, like that of other celestial bodies in its vicinity, can actually only be explained by the presence of a planet the size of Earth.
The basis for this is provided by computer simulations of different gravitational forces in the solar system. An Earth-like planet – which so far only exists as a theory – would explain the observed anomalies, according to the researchers in their paper. It would be up to three times larger than Earth and about 500 times as far away from the sun as Earth.
“We predict the existence of an Earth-like planet and several TNOs in special orbits in the outer solar system,” write authors Patryk Sofia Lykawka of Kindai University in Japan and Takashi Ito of the National Astronomical Observatory in Japan. “The results of the Kuiper Belt planetary scenario support the existence of an as yet undiscovered planet in the outer solar system [und] also predict the existence of new TNO discoveries.”
If the prediction came true, there would not only be a ninth planet in our solar system. The scientists say that the definition of what a planet actually is also needs to be reconsidered. But no one has seen the alleged planet yet. The Japanese are now calling on the scientific community to test their theory. If TNOs were found at a distance of 150 Sun-Earth longitudes, that would be confirmation.