In Search of the Ninth Planet

In Search of the Ninth Planet

The idea of ​​the presence of the mysterious Ninth Planet in our system came about because of the strange behavior of trans-Neptunian objects (TNO). These are rocky bodies, inferior in size to Pluto, and their orbital path exceeds the distance of Neptune. They all move in the same direction.

Planet Nine explains this alignment. But some believe that for such a long time they should have crashed into a planet or thrown themselves in the direction of the Sun.

For a new analysis used various computer simulations. From here came two important conclusions about TNO. First, the Ninth Planet fits perfectly into the modern model of the system, preventing the release of TNO to the Sun. Secondly, there is a “resonant jump” process, where TNOs jump between stable orbital routes. It also prevents them from leaving the solar system. Scientists have added the Ninth Planet to various simulations and it turned out that the first version creates a more stable situation with TNO. Orbital resonance occurs if objects in the system periodically affect gravity on neighboring bodies and line up.

In our case, Neptune acts on TNO. But objects are not sent to the sun, but are held by another resonance. Of course, it would be ideal to simply find the mysterious planet through a telescope, but this is not yet possible.

However, researchers are slowly advancing in goals. Recently discovered a new TNO, whose orbital tilt reaches 54 degrees. This could have been influenced by the Ninth Planet.

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