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A 1980s space telescope may have seen planet nine

gizmodo.com

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Re: A 1980s space telescope may have seen planet nine

#41

Post by xook »

_Microft wrote: post #31
starwind wrote: post #2

Relevant part: For the recent work, [Michael] Rowan-Robinson redid his search from nearly 40 years ago and found three points in the data from late summer 1983 that indicate some object moving across the sky. The data sources sit low on the galactic plane, though, meaning that the satellite was taking the data through plenty of dusty, cloudy material that can emit infrared light. In other words, the work is something…

Isn’t that bigger news than it sounds at first? Part of the problem of finding planet nine must be knowing where it currently is on its orbit. A few possible observations should help to narrow down the space in which to look for it by a lot (rather: would make it almost clear where it currently is). Maybe JWST could be of help with testing the hypothesis that these early infrared observations of a moving object were…

Would have commented this same thing. It should be a matter of translating the coordinates into a search pattern to look at with JWST.

Re: A 1980s space telescope may have seen planet nine

#42

Post by nsf39k »

HenryKissinger wrote: post #8

If Planet 9 contains rare earth metals, mining and manufacturing facilities could be built there. This should help alleviate the chip shortage.

The technology and infrastructure needed to reach Planet 9, build a mining outpost, then transport everything back at a profitable cost is likely decades if not centuries away. That’s not counting the fact that Planet 9 is so far away that getting there with current technology is a lengthy affair in itself (the New Horizons probe wouldn’t even be halfway to a theoretical Planet 9, and it’s been flying for over 15 years!)

Not saying I don’t want this to happen - I would love nothing more than to have humanity push out into the solar system, but recycling or scavenging is infinitely more of an realistic option.

Re: A 1980s space telescope may have seen planet nine

#43

Post by BitwiseFool »

Hemospectrum wrote: post #6
api wrote: post #5

If they don't name it Yuggoth I will be disappointed. https://lovecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Yuggoth

There’s all kinds of silly names they could borrow from stories hypothesizing its existence. Nemesis, Nibiru, Vulcan, and Planet X, just for starters. But in all likelihood it will end up as something much more anodyne.

I think the IAU will only accept names from Mythology.

Re: A 1980s space telescope may have seen planet nine

#45

Post by spacemark »

tick_tock_tick wrote: post #35
WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #34

The Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile is under construction and will image the entire sky every week using the largest digital camera ever built. Hopefully searches along the plane of the ecliptic won't be sabotaged by Starlink or other LEO satellites.

Large facilities were never threatened by Starlink as they easily compensate the issue was amateur's and very small facilities.

Not true at all, totally depends on the type of observation campaign. Plenty of big observatory projects are negatively impacted by the eternal march of "progress."

Re: A 1980s space telescope may have seen planet nine

#46

Post by slyall »

croddin wrote: post #10

If this object did exist, wouldn't it be classified as a dwarf planet since, like Pluto, with a highly elliptical orbit it would be difficult to clear it of other Kuiper belt objects?

I asked Mike Brown this on twitter earlier this year and he said it will have cleared out it's orbit so that won't be a problem.

" definitely clears! "

https://twitter.com/plutokiller/status/1433802812945625095

Re: A 1980s space telescope may have seen planet nine

#47

Post by tick_tock_tick »

spacemark wrote: post #45
tick_tock_tick wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Large facilities were never threatened by Starlink as they easily compensate the issue was amateur's and very small facilities.

Not true at all, totally depends on the type of observation campaign. Plenty of big observatory projects are negatively impacted by the eternal march of "progress."

> "progress."

Do you really think Starlink is not a step forward? It is realistically the only path to get the whole world access to the internet.

Re: A 1980s space telescope may have seen planet nine

#48

Post by odyssey7 »

croddin wrote: post #10

If this object did exist, wouldn't it be classified as a dwarf planet since, like Pluto, with a highly elliptical orbit it would be difficult to clear it of other Kuiper belt objects?

The sufficient-but-not-necessary conditions for identifying a planet are called into question as a workable definition once more.

We’ve duck-typed the solar system, I guess.

Re: A 1980s space telescope may have seen planet nine

#50

Post by staticautomatic »

tectonic wrote: post #3

Mike Brown recently wrote a summary of his and Konstantin Batygin's paper 'The orbit of Planet Nine'. By looking at Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) whose orbits appear skewed by the invisible gravity of a possible Planet Nine, accounting for observation bias, and running a ton of simulations and MCMC, they concluded: if it exists, Planet Nine has a mass of 6.2 (+2.2/-1.3) Earth masses and a perihelion (closest approach to…

Perhaps a dumb question, but if we have some idea of where it was and its probable orbit back then, then why don’t we have some idea of where it is now?
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