The mysterious ‘Planet Nine’ might be causing the whole solar system to wobble

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

The mysterious ‘Planet Nine’ might be causing the whole solar system to wobble

By Sarah Kaplan October 20 at 12:30 PM

Astronomers can't see “Planet Nine.” But it makes its presence known.

The massive hypothetical object, which supposedly looms at the edge of our solar system, has been invoked to explain the strange clustering of objects in the Kuiper belt and the unusual way they orbit the Sun.

Now Planet Nine predictors Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown of Caltech, along with graduate student Elizabeth Bailey, offer another piece of evidence for the elusive sphere's existence: It adds “wobble” to the solar system, they say, tilting it in relation to the sun.

“Because Planet Nine is so massive and has an orbit tilted compared to the other planets, the solar system has no choice but to slowly twist out of alignment,” lead author Bailey said in a statement.

Before we go any further, a caveat about Planet Nine: It's purely theoretical at this point. Batygin and Brown predict its existence based on unusual perturbations of the solar system that aren't otherwise easily explained. (This is the same technique scientists used to find Neptune.) But the history of astronomy is rife with speculation that is never borne out: The same guy who correctly predicted the existence of Neptune also believed that a planet he called Vulcan was responsible for the wobble of Mercury. That “discovery” caused the astronomy world to waste years looking for something that wasn't there. (Mercury's wobble was eventually explained by the theory of general relativity.)

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/10/20/the-mysterious-planet-nine-might-be-causing-the-whole-solar-system-to-wobble/

[TonyPDX]

1. Not to be confused with "Plan Nine from Outer Space,"

which is something else entirely:

[nikto]

19. It's too late for me

But for 2 letters, "e" and "t"
Plan 9 and Planet 9 are the same.


Science is just so confusing.
(Sorry, just playing Conservative here)

[stone space]

2. Oh, geeze! First Trump, now this!

causing the whole solar system to wobble

[longship]

3. This is rather good science reporting.

Jacob Bronowski said it rather wonderfully:

Every judgment in science stands on the edge of error and is personal. Science is a tribute to what we can know although we are fallible. In the end, the words were said by Oliver Cromwell: "I beseech you in the bowels of Christ: Think it possible you may be mistaken."

From the absolutely astounding BBC series, The Ascent of Man (later broadcast on PBS).

[Towlie]

16. Then why does it begin with "Astronomers can't see 'Planet Nine' but it makes its presence known"...

and then go on to say that its presence is NOT known?

[mysuzuki2]

5. The entire solar system is wobbling?

I thought it was just me ...

[lastlib]

6. I wonder if I can use that....

..next time I get pulled over for a DUI?? .

"Nah, Offsher, it's not me--the whole frickin' Sholar Shystem's w-w-w-obbb-lin'......"

.

[Oldem]

7. Heh, heh.

[lastlib]

8. Welcome to DU!!

.

[packman]

9. Weebles wooble but they don't fall down

DAMMIT, that's going to be with me all day now.

?t=13

If they ever find that "extra" planet, they gotta call it Weeble

[Jim__]

10. A short video with Batygin and Brown talking about the 9th planet.

I can't access the article at the Post (I have no more access to free articles), so I'm not sure if this is a duplicate of something in that article.

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[mopinko]

18. clear your cookie.

find the wapo cookie and delete. no more limits.

[Cresent City Kid]

11. What if there's life there?

Trump will surely double down on xenophobia, "We going to build a great space wall, it will be the greatest space wall you've ever seen and we'll make the hombres from this Deep Space Nine pay for it!"

[Nitram]

13. Astronomers didn't "waste" years looking for Vulcan.

They were practicing good science. Every hypothesis must be investigated to be proven true or false. That's the way science works.