Astronomers Confirming Likely Spotting Of “Planet” X – Update Simulation

Here is the wikipedia page on it BEFORE this discovery from Caltech:

Following the discovery of the planet Neptune in 1846, there was considerable speculation that another planet might exist beyond its orbit. The search began in the mid-19th century and culminated at the start of the 20th with Percival Lowell‘s quest for Planet X. Lowell proposed the Planet X hypothesis to explain apparent discrepancies in the orbits of the giant planets, particularly Uranus and Neptune,[1] speculating that the gravity of a large unseen ninth planet could haveperturbed Uranus enough to account for the irregularities.[2]

Clyde Tombaugh‘s discovery of Pluto in 1930 appeared to validate Lowell’s hypothesis, and Pluto was officially named the ninth planet. In 1978, Pluto was conclusively determined to be too small for its gravity to affect the giant planets, resulting in a brief search for a tenth planet. The search was largely abandoned in the early 1990s, when a study of measurements made by the Voyager 2 spacecraft found that the irregularities observed in Uranus’s orbit were due to a slight overestimation of Neptune’s mass.[3] After 1992, the discovery of numerous small icy objects with similar or even wider orbits than Pluto led to a debate over whether Pluto should remain a planet, or whether it and its neighbours should, like the asteroids, be given their own separate classification. Although a number of the larger members of this group were initially described as planets, in 2006 the International Astronomical Union reclassified Pluto and its largest neighbours asdwarf planets, leaving Neptune the farthest known planet in the Solar System.[4]

Check back for updates as they come in.  Here are two different videos about it and one has a cool simulation of its orbit!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov4EKOSea48



14 Comments

  1. Eric Myers said:

    Cal tech confirmed there’s something out there.
    There’s still disagreement , but most are saying there’s something.
    I imagine the hold back on it is huge.
    The implications are huge concerning ancient Sumerian text.
    They say there is a planet out there.
    There’s some detail in them that is pretty unbelievable.
    Details that they couldn’t know

  2. Eric Myers said:

    Neptune’s obit speed indicates there is something slowing it and speeding it up.
    Definitely a gravitational force at work

  3. John Gadient said:

    It doesn’t make sense this wasn’t found before. The math doesn’t change. Why is it just being noticed? This looks like the beginning of disclosure to me.

  4. Dan Levin said:

    How could they have been looking for centuries when Pluto was just discovered in the 20s? Planet X is a distinctly 20th century idea.

*

*

Top