Amazing new possible discovery

[Nightshade]

The 'real' 9th planet may about to be revealed and it's thought to be a whopper!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... ystem.html

Largest planet in the solar system could be about to be discovered - and it's up to four times the size of Jupiter

Scientists believe they may have found a new planet in the far reaches of the solar system, up to four times the mass of Jupiter.

Its orbit would be thousands of times further from the Sun than the Earth's - which could explain why it has so far remained undiscovered.

Data which could prove the existence of Tyche, a gas giant in the outer Oort Cloud, is set to be released later this year - although some believe proof has already been garnered by Nasa with its pace telescope, Wise, and is waiting to be pored over.

Prof Daniel Whitmire from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette believes the data may prove Tyche's existence within two years.

He told the Independent: 'If it does, [fellow astrophysicist Prof John Matese] and I will be doing cartwheels. And that's not easy at our age.'

He added he believes it will mainly be made of hydrogen and helium, with an atmosphere like Jupiter's, with spots and rings and clouds, adding: 'You'd also expect it to have moons. All the outer planets have them.'

He believes the planet is so huge, it will ahve a raised temperature left from its formation that will make it far higher than others, such as Pluto, at -73C, as 'it takes an object this size a long time to cool off'.

He and Prof Matese first suggested Tyche existed because of the angle comets were arriving, with a fifth of the expected number since 1898 entering higher than expected.

However, Tyche - if it exists - should also dislodge comets closer to home, from the inner Oort Cloud, but they have not been seen.

If confirmed, the status and name of the new planet - which would become the ninth and potentially the largest - would then have to be agreed by the International Astronomical Union.

Currently named Tyche, from the Greek goddess that governed the destiny of a city, its name may have to change, as it originated from a theory which has now been largely abandoned.

Mistakes about potential planetary bodies in our solar system have been made before, but this sounds very interesting!

BTW, WISE stands for "Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer" http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/main/index.html

WISE was built for this very purpose- to seek out bodies in our solar system that may only emit in the infrared since they are so far away from the sun, virtually no detectable visible light is reflected back.

[Isaac]

lol @ typo

but still, very cool stuff. Thanks for sharing.

[CUDA]

and for those of you that lived through the 60's

Verrrrry interesting.

[Foil]

Ooooh, this IS cool.

<runs off to look up more about it>

Thanks, TB!

[flip]

could be about to be discovered

Lol. I read that far and started laughing.

EDIT:

Mistakes about potential planetary bodies in our solar system have been made before, but this sounds very interesting!

You beat me to it

[Foil]

Did a little looking into this.

Tyche's existance is only speculative, based on some statistical variations in the number of comets coming from a certain area of the Oort cloud outside our solar system.

There's considerable doubt among the astronomer community that there's anything to this theory.

Darn, I was hoping to find something more concrete. Would have been cool.

[Krom]

Sounds pretty fishy to me, they have been able to find planets smaller/lighter than that in orbit around other stars already. If something that heavy was that close to home it shouldn't be that difficult to find because it would stir up way more then just a few comets that barely qualify as a statistical anomaly.

[Isaac]

That's because it's not a a planet. It's a space station. /sw

[Lothar]

they have been able to find planets smaller/lighter than that in orbit around other stars already

Yes, but that's because the planets are coming between us and the other star, causing it to "wobble" (either visually, or on some other spectrum) as the planet blocks some of the star's energy. Essentially, we're seeing partial stellar eclipses that indicate the presence of planets.

Objects in our system but outside of our orbit can be much more difficult to detect. We don't see any sort of "eclipse". We may not see any reflected sunlight. Often, the best we can do is look for gravitational variations.

I would be surprised if this particular variation turns out to be a planet -- but it's not out of the question for a very large planet to be lurking somewhere out there.

[TechPro]

That's because it's not a a planet. It's a space station. /sw

... and it's headed this way?

[Avder]

As many wise men before me have said about other arousing possibilities many times before:

Pics or it didn't happen.

I'll wait for the equivalent of the photographic plates that confirmed Pluto's existence.

[Nightshade]

Yep, like I said, it's a possible...not probable, new planet.

W.I.S.E. might be able to detect it directly if it exists.

[Nightshade]

New link from CNN: http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/15/sc ... ce/?hpt=C2

[Isaac]

Its 27 million-year orbit could also explain a pattern of mass extinctions on Earth, scientists say.

... like a MMO world reset trigger. That could be fun. Raise your hands if you think we should move into space (despite our minds already living there)!

[Heretic]

Are you sure it's a new planet and not Nibiru.

[Avder]

Anyone remember the Nemesis theory?

Basically the idea is that the sun has a brown dwarf companion somewhere that has a period of approximately that of ass extinction events on earth. Who knows, if this thing is several times jupters size, it might be right on the border line between gas giant and brown dwarf.

[Heretic]

ass extinction ?

[Avder]

ass extinction ?

Why not. Do you see any dinosaur ass around anymore?

Yeah yeah I made a typo or something, whatever.

[Isaac]

asstinct, asstinction, asstinctification.. all usable in Scrabble.

[Burlyman]

Its 27 million-year orbit could also explain a pattern of mass extinctions on Earth, scientists say.

... like a MMO world reset trigger. That could be fun. Raise your hands if you think we should move into space (despite our minds already living there)!

No, we already have enough space cadets. Instead, let's turn the world into a pay-to-play MMO game.

[Isaac]

Instead, let's turn the world into a pay-to-play MMO game.

If we're not there yet why am I an orc in real life, paying to play?