Thursday, January 21, 2016

A ninth (very large) planet in the solar system? – Point

“If Planet 9 exists, it is huge,” wrote Washington Post . And this discovery is enormous, because it’s not every day that we discover an unknown planet in our solar system. In fact, since ancient times, there were only two! “It would be the third in this case,” said Mike Brown, a professor of planetary astronomy, co-author of the publication.

Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech ), have not directly observed Planet 9. They made this discovery through mathematical models and computer simulations. According to their calculations, this giant planet, but far away, would have a mass of about ten times that of the Earth and an orbit would be twenty times farther than Neptune, which revolves around the Sun at an average distance of 4, 5 billion kilometers. Planet 9 conduct a complete orbit around the sun between 10 000 and 20 000 years, specify Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown.

“There are still a large part of our solar system to be discovered, and c is very exciting, “said Mike Brown. Pluto has long been considered the ninth planet of the solar system, but lost that status because it was too small. It is now classified as a dwarf planet. The new planet discovered will not have this problem: its mass would indeed be 5000 times that of Pluto

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