(ORDO NEWS) — Astronomer Dmitry Wiebe shared his opinion about the talk about the existence of some mysterious Planet X. He told why it is not so easy to confirm or deny the presence of this celestial body.
Mention of Planet X has been going on for over 100 years, for the first time its existence was talked about at the end of the 19th century, considering it as a hypothetical trans-Neptunian celestial body that can explain the oddities in the movement of Uranus after the discovery of Neptune.
With the discovery of Pluto, there were nine planets, but the issue of the activity of Uranus remained unresolved. Then the mysterious celestial body became the “tenth”. Later it became clear that there was nothing strange in the movement of Uranus, but the topic of the trans-Neptunian planet remained in a frozen state.
It cannot be completely ruled out that behind the orbit of Neptune there are not hidden celestial bodies unknown to man, which revolve around the Sun. Many of them may be spherical, with Wiebe citing Ceres as an example. Its diameter is no more than 1000 km, and this is already enough to call it a ball.
However, it is obligatory for planets to clear the area of their orbit from other bodies. In the trans-Neptunian region, “Pluto-like” bodies continue to be found, but they can be conditionally called planets.
If you look for something more significant, like the Earth or Jupiter, then such bodies betray their presence due to strong gravity. In 2016, the discussion of Planet X flared up with renewed vigor after the publication of a work by Konstantin Batygin and Michael Brown.
However, it will be possible to draw conclusions about the existence of such a celestial body only after it can be captured in a photo. It is possible to identify a new planet through direct observations, but the process is not easy, the expert concludes. To prove the existence of something is easy, but the absence is almost impossible.
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