Massive Dark World Discovered
Two astrophysicists have detected the presence of a possible ninth planet in our solar system. The object is named Tyche after the goddess who determined the fortune and prosperity of cities in Greek mythology. This "super planet" is believed to be four times the size of Jupiter with its own ring bands, clouds, and moons lying deep in the Oort Cloud.
If Tyche is indeed a planet, it is believed to be a gas giant consisting of helium and hydrogen. Data from NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer is currently being analyzed to confirm Tyche's existence, with the first batch of data due to be released in April. The dense mass of Tyche raises the hypothesis of binary star theory, in which Tyche's sibling Nemesis was thought to be responsible for mass extinctions on Earth, possibly due to gravitational flux and electromagnetic interference.
If the existence of Tyche proves true it may overturn a believed scientific theory that suggests that due to the planet's gravitational influence, the "gas giant should dislodge comets from the inner Oort Cloud, but these have not been observed." Time will soon tell if Tyche is an unprecedented anomaly as what makes up our solar system keeps expanding along with our awareness of its intimate inner workings.
Image: "moonsurface2" by eburacum45 on Flickr courtesy of Creative Commons Licensing.
- 2-22-11
- Chris Kaplan's blog
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A new plante....Naibiru???
The headline here seems to overstate the case
The link doesn't work, so I'm going on my own digging into articles here, but it appears that numerous arguments have been made that there is a companion star / brown dwarf companion to the sun, which would make sense given that binary systems are more common than not. But, the argument for Nemesis, as the unseen companion was named, was apparently based on problems in the math looking at perturbations in the orbit of Neptune, which when resolved removed that argument.
So, the WISE data is the new opportunity to prove this argument, and the data collection by WISE has just been completed and will have to be evaluated over some time to determine whether the assertion that a dark world exists is valid.
From the NASA QA:
Q: When could data from WISE confirm or rule out the existence of the hypothesized planet Tyche?
A: It is too early to know whether WISE data confirms or rules out a large object in the Oort cloud. Analysis over the next couple of years will be needed to determine if WISE has actually detected such a world or not. The first 14 weeks of data, being released in April 2011, are unlikely to be sufficient. The full survey, scheduled for release in March 2012, should provide greater insight. Once the WISE data are fully processed, released and analyzed, the Tyche hypothesis that Matese and Whitmire propose will be tested.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-060
So, it seems that the headline here is jumping the gun, unless you have a link to a response to the new data from WISE?
Binary?
amazing
Massive Dark World Discovered.