Astronomers have found possible new evidence of the existence of a Planet Nine in the confines of Solar system. This clue is based on the study of the inclination of a population of objects beyond Neptune (TNO).
In the new work, published in ArXivthe team led by Konstantin Batygin, from the California Institute of Technology, has tracked the movements of long-period objects crossing Neptune’s orbit and exhibit irregular movements during their trajectory. This would be related to a key clue that emerged a decade ago: the objects of the great perihelion of the Kuiper Belt are grouped together.
Neptune’s gravitational dispersion alters this pattern, so attention has remained on the dynamically stable (Sedna-type) TNOs, ignoring the unstable ones. Given their dynamical instability, only two scenarios can maintain this TNO population in a stable state: either they are driven inward by the interaction between the galactic tide and Neptune’s dispersion, or They are the result of a dynamic induced by Planet Nine.
Calculations
The team has carried out detailed calculations and astrophysical simulations for both the Planet Nine scenario and the galactic tidal model. The results show that while the planet produces a flat perihelion distribution of those crossing Neptune, the model without it results in a distribution that peaked around 30 AU (Astronomical Units).
After adjusting for observational bias, The data has favored the Ninth Planet model at a 5 sigma level of confidence on a scale of 6. Surprisingly, this “unexotic” group of TNOs has provided the strongest statistical evidence yet that Planet Nine is really out there, Batygin concludes in his account in X (before Twitter).
Unfortunately, location in the sky cannot be derived of the new investigation, as Batygin has admitted. The leader of the study has trusted that future observatories such as the Vera Rubin will help in locating it, although it is not clear that it will be detected.
