Is there a giant planet lurking in the inky depths of the solar system far, far beyond Neptune?
If so, we now have a map to where it might be in the sky.
… kinda.
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2/ The idea that there might be a giant Planet Nine has been around a while. A lot of icy chunks past Neptune seem to have their orbits aligned in a way that can't be random, as if another planet out there has been rearranging them via gravity.
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3/ Can this be used to find it? Like fingers pointing back to its location?
Actually, yes. Sortof. Astronomers and ran simulations of Planet 9 to see what kind of mass and orbit it would need to shuffle those iceballs into their ccurrent onfigurations.
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4/ What they got was a probability map, a map on the sky showing the likelihood of P9 being in a given location. It traces the orbit across the sky and gives astronomers a guide where to look.
It's not that simple — what is? — but it's a start.
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5/ I have details on what that means in my article, but the red splotch is where it's most likely to be; farthest from the Sun in an elliptical orbit that takes it over 55 billion km out, and very faint. It'll likely take gigantic telescopes to see it at all.
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6/ Unfortunately that puts it in the plane of the galaxy, a part of the sky just lousy with stars, making finding it that much harder. But they've been looking, and with new big 'scopes coming online (like ) the search may get a big boost.
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7/7 This has been an amazing story to track. If P9 is out there — and it really looks like it is — we may be only a few years out from finding it.
Stay very much tuned. 👇
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8/7 P.S. tweeted about this and linked to both the paper and his blog post explaining it as well.
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Our tome on the predicted orbit of Planet Nine is now out. Check it out here: arxiv.org/abs/2108.09868
You can read some thoughts of mine here: findplanetnine.blogspot.com
Or you can hang on for some of the coolest details.
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If I find Planet 9, I'm naming it Pluto, Jr. just to spite you people.
