Science & Space
The star could be recognized as an integral part of our solar system.
In 2014, a study by the Astronomical Journal clarified some evidence for the existence of an additional planet in our solar system. It would be about three times larger and ten times heavier than Earth and would be positioned quite a distance behind Pluto (whose membership in our solar system is disputed).
This object is in an exceptionally long and frigid orbit
According to National Geographic magazine, it would position itself very, very far. “According to the simulations, the planet’s closest point to the sun would be 200 to 300 times further away than Earth’s. As for its furthest point? At the edge of the solar system, between 600 and 1200 times further away than from Earth,” specifies the specialist journalist Nadia Drake. One of the scientists behind this study explained: “This object is in an extraordinarily long and frigid orbit, and the duration of its complete revolution around the Sun is probably of the order of 20,000 years. »
never seen
Evidence for the existence of this new planet would be found by studying the trajectories of stars in our solar system. In short, the gravitational signature of this large planet described would be inscribed in the unusual orbits of these distant stars.
Known as Extreme Kuiper Belt Objects, these bodies exhibit chaotic behavior. They draw strange orbital circles around the sun. And since scientists know that an object’s orbit in space depends on the orbit of other objects, they can make assumptions.
The hypothesis most considered so far would be the existence of a ninth planet in our solar system that would affect the bodies of the Kruiper Belt. The researchers who published the evidence of this planet’s existence did so by mistake. Konstantin Batygin and his Caltech colleague Mike Brown did not actually intend to look for evidence of the existence of a new neighboring planet.
The solar system, simulated. (Picture Belga)
In their observations of nearly six celestial bodies, they found that their orbits converged in a way that could not be coincidental. “This probability is in the gigantic order of 0.007 percent,” stated Batygin. After a simulation, they published the conclusions that we know.