(ORDO NEWS) — A planet in the outer solar system could not have come from nowhere. Even without ever directly observing Planet 9, scientists are modeling various versions of its origin.
One possibility is that the Sun was able to somehow capture a gravitationally free-roaming planet, or a planet orbiting another star, and pull it into the solar system.
Computer models built by Gongji Lee and Fred Adams, both scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), USA, indicate that the probability of this scenario is less than two percent.
If Planet 9 was not captured outside the solar system, then it was obviously formed somewhere inside it. Models built by CfA’s Scott Kenyon and University of Utah’s Benjamin Bromeli show there’s a significant chance that the mysterious planet was formed right where it currently is, or was pushed into the outer solar system. as a result of interaction with giant planets.
“The wonderful thing about this theory is that it can be tested by observation,” Kelly said in a statement. “If a planet is pushed out by the gas giants, then it will look like a cold Neptune, while a planet that formed in situ will look like a giant version of Pluto, that is, it will be devoid of gas.”
Not all researchers need to see this planet with their own eyes before trying to figure out its basic parameters. For example, astrophysics professor Christophe Mordasini and his doctoral student Esther Linder, both from the University of Bern, Switzerland, modeled the picture that astronomers should see when Planet Nine is discovered.
Assuming that the planet is a smaller version of the ice giant Uranus or Neptune, whose atmosphere is dominated by hydrogen and helium, the research duo calculated that the size of Planet 9, which has a mass of about 10 Earth masses, should be about 3.7 times the size of our planet. Temperatures on the planet’s surface should be around minus 226 degrees Celsius.
“This means that the radiation emitted by this planet is mainly determined by internal sources, that is, the cooling of the core,” Linder said in a statement.
Although no one has yet been able to see this planet, this does not mean that we should not be afraid of it. Reports published in the New York Post in April suggested that Planet 9 could send asteroids and comets toward Earth, with catastrophic consequences. The video, which contains several factual errors, was heavily criticized by Brown.
“Planet 9 will not cause the death of the Earth. If you read otherwise in some source – do not believe this source! ”, Brown wrote on his Twitter account.
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