2024-04-25 09:03:59
When it comes to discovering planets, finding them around other stars is actually a bit easier than around our own star. Astronomers can observe if the star’s light dims as planets pass by and block out their star – a process known as the transit method.
It is also possible to observe the fluctuations of the star caused by the planets orbiting it and their effects. Using these and several other methods, astronomers have discovered thousands of exoplanets over the past few decades — and our solar system still has eight planets so far.
The discovery of planets around our Sun relies on two methods: observing them in the sky and observing small perturbations in the orbits of other objects. Venus, Mercury, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars were discovered by visual observation.
Uranus in 1781 discovered by astronomer William Herschel, who noticed that the bright object was moving relative to other stars. Neptune was discovered in 1846. astronomer and mathematician Urbain Le Verrier noticed that the orbit of Uranus was different from the orbit predicted by Newtonian physics. He realized that this could be explained by another planet beyond Uranus influencing its orbit – and predicted where this planet should be.
However, the discovery of the planets of the solar system may not yet be complete. in 2015 two Caltech astronomers have provided evidence that six objects beyond Neptune’s orbit are clustered, suggesting they are being “bred” by something with a strong gravitational pull.
Despite the assumptions that the planets may have formed due to a statistical anomaly, the team believes that the objects may have moved in this way due to the influence of a large object beyond the orbit of Neptune. In the new paper, the research team examined long-period objects that crossed Neptune’s orbital path — and found that their closest orbital point from the Sun was about 15 to 30 astronomical units (AU), where one AU is the distance between the Sun and Earth.
After running simulations to try to figure out what would best explain the orbits of these objects, the researchers found that a model that included a massive planet beyond Neptune explained the steady state of these objects much better than a simulation that did not include the ninth planet. The team also included other variables in the model, such as galactic flooding and the gravitational influence of wandering stars.
While this is intriguing, the analysis does not narrow the field of where to look for such a planet. Fortunately, we may not have to wait much longer for this matter. “It is exciting that the dynamics described here, and all other evidence for a ninth planet, will soon be rigorously tested with the Vera Rubin Observatory in operation,” the team concluded. – This upcoming phase of research promises to provide important insights into the mysteries of our solar system’s outer regions.
2024-04-25 09:03:59