Shillong, September 6: Japanese astronomers have unveiled the potential existence of an Earth-like “Planet Nine” lurking in our solar system, just beyond Neptune, reigniting the debate about the existence of such a celestial body. This revelation comes after Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006.
As per IANS, published in the Astronomical Journal, the study conducted by Sofia Lykawka from Kindai University in Osaka and Takashi Ito from the Japan National Astronomy Observatory suggests the presence of this Earth-like planet within the Kuiper Belt—a ring-shaped region that extends past Neptune’s orbit.
The Kuiper Belt is a vast realm composed of various interstellar objects, including dwarf planets, asteroids, carbon-rich masses, and icy volatile elements like methane and ammonia.
“We predict the existence of Earth-like planets,” state the researchers, who theorize that primordial planetary bodies could have survived in the distant Kuiper Belt, given the early diversity of celestial objects in the solar system.
According to their findings, Planet Nine could possess a mass roughly 1.5 to 3 times that of Earth and be situated at a distance of 500 astronomical units from the Sun.
Within the Kuiper Belt, millions of frozen objects, known as trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), exist, as they are located beyond Neptune’s gravitational influence. These TNOs are believed to be remnants from the solar system’s formation, composed of combinations of rock, amorphous carbon, and volatile ices like water and methane.
The researchers explain, “We determined that an Earth-like planet located on a distant and inclined orbit can explain three fundamental properties of the distant Kuiper Belt: a prominent population of TNOs with orbits beyond Neptune’s gravitational influence, a significant population of high-inclination objects, and the existence of some extreme objects with peculiar orbits.”
Furthermore, they noted that some TNOs exhibit unusual orbits that hint at gravitational influences from a larger celestial body nearby, potentially indicating the presence of planets beyond what we currently know.
