Search for Planet 9 continues

One year ago, January 20, 2016, Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin published in Astronomical Journal breaking news: with high probability, still undetected planet  up to 10 Earth masses, is lurking in the Solar System, far beyond Neptune (and Pluto) orbit.

 Researchers suggested that strange similarities in the orbits of six transneptunian dwarf planets are in the best way explained by presence of Super Earth on the distant elliptical orbit. Calculations show that undiscovered planet should have highly elliptical orbit, with closest point to Sun (perihelion) no less than 200 a. u. (1 a. u. = distance from Earth to Sun) and  aphelion (the most distant point) about 600 a. u.

In this 4 minute video co-author of 9 planet hypothesis Konstantin Batygin tells "how to make Solar System great again" ;)

 

On Jan 21 researcher Greg Laughlin published excellent one year update. Here's what he says:

... My feeling is that right now, the chance of a big announcement is peaking at a somewhat less than 1% per day 

With each new data set search region is narrowing and number of large Earth telescope are looking for a large dim object of  at magnitude V~23,  with size two to four times the diameter of Earth, at the distance of one light week.

Probably, the critical clue for Planet 9 location is given in  this paper:

 The four longest period Kuiper belt objects have orbital periods close to integer ratios with each other. A hypothetical planet with orbital period ?17,117 years, semimajor axis ?665 AU, would have N/1 and N/2 period ratios with these four objects. The orbital geometries and dynamics of resonant orbits constrain the orbital plane, the orbital eccentricity and the mass of such a planet, as well as its current location in its orbital path. 

If this hypothesis is true, then it must be here:

Image

And this is a good instruction for Subaru Telescope where scientists are looking for mysterious planet

Image:  National Astronomical Observatory of Japan 

For further reading: http://oklo.org/2017/01/21/planet-nine-a-one-year-update/

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_Nine