The two American astronomers, one of which – a native of Russia, on Tuesday taken aback scientific world after the media had spread the sensational news: on the outskirts of the solar system discovered the ninth planet! The first news about it published Caltech, employing two scientists – Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown, later – the renowned scientific journal Science and Nature.
«She will be the ninth planet . Since ancient times, it has been found only two actual planets, and this will be the third. It is a significant part of our solar system, which remained undiscovered, and it’s delicious, “- said Brown.
It is reported that the planet found by mathematical analysis of perturbations that are experiencing a lot of icy bodies from the so-called Kuiper Belt – a vast region of space beyond the orbit of Pluto. Calculations showed that the planet rotates around the sun at a distance of 20 orbits of Neptune, its mass 10 times Earth’s mass.
Due to this distance from the Sun, the planet is not visible, and makes a complete revolution around the sun for 10-20 thousand. years.
«While we initially skeptical about the fact that this planet may exist, to the extent that we continue to explore its orbit, we became more and more convinced that it is really there “- said Batygin.
The estimated mass of the object leaves no doubt that it can be confidently attributed to the planet, because it is five times heavier than Pluto! In contrast to the huge number of small objects in the solar system, such as dwarf planets, the ninth planet gravitationally dominant in the extended region of the Kuiper Belt, where it rotates. Moreover, this area is a lot more space and dominated all other known planets in the solar system.
This, according to Brown, making it the “most planetary planet Solar system ».
The work of scientists, which may be the landmark called« Evidence for a Distant Giant Planet in the Solar System »was published in Astronomical Journal . In it, the authors can be explained a variety of previously detected features in the movement of icy bodies of the Kuiper Belt.
The search for the planet began in 2014 when a former student of Brown published an article that claimed that 13 of the most distant objects of the Kuiper Belt have similar oddities in its movement. Then I was offered a small version of the existence of the next world. Brown did not support this version, however, continued calculation. At the Batygina they began eighteen-month project to study the orbits of these bodies.
Pretty soon Batygin and Brown realized that the orbits of six of the sites are close to the same region of space, despite the fact that all the orbits of different . “As if you look at the six o’clock in the six arms that come with different speeds, and at this point they would show the same time. The probability of this – about 1/100 “- says Brown. In addition, it was found that all six bodies orbit inclined at an angle of 30 degrees to the plane of the ecliptic. “In fact, this could not have been accidental. So we began to look for something that has formed these orbits “- said astronomer.
Almost by accident, scientists noticed that when the calculations put a heavy planet,
whose perihelion is separated from the perihelion of the six bodies of 180 degrees (that is, between the Sun itself), then the perturbation precisely explain the observed pattern.
«healthy reaction was – this geometry is not possible, the orbit can not be sustained for long, because eventually it will lead to a clash of objects”, – said Batygin. However, a mechanism known in celestial mechanics as resonances mean motions, does not allow this to happen: objects close together, exchanging energy and fly away.
For every four turns ninth planet has to nine revolutions of the very object and they will never collide. As often happens in astronomy, the hypothesis was confirmed when it was confirmed the predicted assumption. It turned out that the trans-Neptunian objects Sedna, discovered in 2003 by Brown, Trujillo and Rabinowitz and another similar object 2012 VP113 really slightly deviates its orbit where it is predicted. But the main assumption that came true – the existence thanks to the heavy planet in the Kuiper belt objects, the plane of rotation at all perpendicular to the plane of the solar system.
It was found that over the past three years, astronomers have been We found at least four such objects whose orbit correspond to predictions.
How did hide in the depths of the planet of the Kuiper Belt? Scientists believe that the solar system originally had four cores that formed Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. “However, they could be five,” – says Brown. This fifth protoplanet, came too close to Jupiter or Saturn, would be thrown on the distant eccentric orbit.
According to scientists, if the planet is now close to its perihelion, it is possible to look into the past view of the sky. If you have time off, catch it may telescopes such as the 10-meter instruments in the Keck Observatory,
because the planet has never approaches the Sun at a distance closer than 200 orbits of the Earth.
Among the scholars there is no consensus about the opening. Alessandro Morbidelli, an expert on the dynamics of bodies from Nice, I’m sure that this planet exists. But not everyone thinks so. “I’ve seen many, many similar statements during his career. And they were wrong, “- says Hal Levison, a planetary scientist at the Institute in Boulder (Colorado).
Until 2009, the ninth planet of the solar system was considered Pluto, discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh also by analyzing it creates disturbances . Pluto was demoted to dwarf planet decision of the International Astronomical Union. Recently, some astronomers have created a movement to return him to the status of the planet after the discoveries made by the probe New Horizons.
One of the first interview with Constantine gave Batygin “Gazety.Ru».
– Constantine, search bodies in the Kuiper Belt – not a very popular topic among astronomers, how many people are engaged in it?
– In the world there is a little more than a hundred people, I think. It was found that the most distant objects in the solar system in physical space facing the same direction. And the only theoretically correct model, we were able to design – one where their orbits keep gravity of one planet.
– What are the prospects of finding a planet with the help of telescopes?
– I it really make in the next two to five years. To do this, knowledge of the orbit and enough time observing time at the telescopes. Knowledge of orbit – what we are doing in this article. To find it, you need to know where to look. At the moment, we know only the closest part of it.
– I know that you were born in Moscow. How did you get in the US?
– We lived in Russia until 1994, in Moscow, I graduated from Grade 1. We moved to Japan, lived there for six years, where I studied from 3rd to 6th class and second class missed because he was too high. Then he studied at the School of the Russian Embassy in Tokyo. In 1999 he moved to California, where I graduated from high school, university and graduate school at Caltech.
– Good luck, hope that your discovery is confirmed, and we will see your name in the books!
– Thank you.
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