Something big is warping the outer solar system

in #science7 years ago

From Futurity.org

The plane of our solar system is warped in the outer reaches of the Kuiper Belt, suggesting the presence of an unknown Mars-to-Earth-mass planetary object far beyond Pluto—but much closer than Planet Nine.

An unknown, unseen “planetary mass object” may lurk in the outer reaches of our solar system, according to new research on the orbits of minor planets.

The object would be different from—and much closer than—the so-called Planet Nine, a planet whose existence has yet to be confirmed.

As massive as Mars

In a new paper, scientists present compelling evidence of a yet-to-be- discovered planetary body with a mass somewhere between that of Mars and Earth. The mysterious mass, has given away its presence—for now—only by controlling the orbital planes of a population of space rocks known as Kuiper Belt objects, or KBOs, in the icy outskirts of the solar system.

While most KBOs—debris left over from the formation of the solar system—orbit the sun with orbital tilts (inclinations) that average out to what planetary scientists call the invariable plane of the solar system, the most distant of the Kuiper Belt’s objects don’t.

Their average plane is tilted away from the invariable plane by about eight degrees. In other words, something unknown is warping the average orbital plane of the outer solar system.

Read more: http://www.futurity.org/kuiper-belt-solar-system-1468172-2/


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I'm really interested in space posts
thanks for sharing this

nice post. thank you

The truth is out there.

Can't it just be a gravitational wave?

i love your space posts! think of the celestial observation that could be made from a moon base observatory with the full complement of radio and other kinds of telescopes - what wonderful discoveries would/could be made especially without the interference of the earth's atmosphere and other sources of data contamination. observations made from the moon in conjunction with those from space based platforms would greatly expand our knowledge and understanding of the solar system and the whole of the cosmos

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