Scientists find new evidence that Planet 9 exists in the Solar System

Astronomers have found possible new evidence that Planet 9 exists in the far reaches of the Earth. Solar systembased on the study of the inclination of a population of objects beyond Neptune (TNO).

A key early clue about Planet 9 emerged nearly a decade ago: Objects from the Kuiper Belt’s large perihelion cluster together. Neptune’s gravitational dispersion alters this pattern, so the focus remains on the dynamically stable (Sedna-type) TNOs, ignoring the unstable ones.

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In the new study, published on arXiv, the team led by Konstantin Batygin of the California Institute of Technology tracked the motions of long-period objects that cross Neptune’s orbit and exhibit irregular motions during their trajectory.

Given their dynamical instability, only two scenarios can maintain this TNO population in a stable state: either they are driven inward by the interaction between the galactic tide and Neptune’s dispersion, or they are the result of dynamics induced by Planet 9.

The team carried out detailed calculations and astrophysical simulations for both the Planet 9 scenario and the galactic tidal model. The results show that while Planet 9 produces a flat perihelion distribution of those crossing Neptune, the model without Planet 9 results in a distribution that peaked around 30 AU (Astronomical Units).

After adjusting for observational bias the data favor the Planet 9 model at a 5 sigma level of confidence on a scale of 6. Surprisingly, this “unexotic” group of TNOs provides the strongest statistical evidence yet that Planet 9 is reallyout there, Batygin concludes in his X account.

Unfortunately the location in the sky cannot be derived from the new research, admits Batygin, who is also confident that future observatories such as Vera Rubin will help in locating it, although it is not clear that it will detect it. “We’ll see,” she said.