Large 'Planet X' May Lurk Beyond Pluto

from - [url=http://news.aol.com/story/_a/large-planet-x-may-lurk-beyond-pluto/20080619152309990002?icid=200100397x1204276348x1200188999]http://news.aol.com[/ url]

(June 19) - An icy, unknown world might lurk in the distant reaches of our solar system beyond the orbit of Pluto, according to a new computer model.

New research has found that a hidden world may exist beyond Pluto. According to a computer model, the world is much bigger than Pluto and could satisfy a hypothesis for a "Planet X." Here, a drawing shows Sedna, an object which could be part of this new world.

Sedna, the most distant object in our solar system, is indicated by the arrow above. It is a mysterious planet-like body three times farther from Earth than Pluto. The discovery of a possible Planet X beyond Pluto could explain features of the Kuiper Belt, a region of space littered with icy and rocky bodies. Sedna is a member of that belt.

"We are still scratching the edges of that region of the solar system, and I expect many surprises await us," one scientist said. Above, Pluto and its moons are shown in an image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The planet is so far away that no clear pictures of it exist.

After a tumultuous debate, astronomers in 2006 downgraded Pluto to a "dwarf planet." It had been considered a planet since 1930. Here, on Jan. 19, 2006, NASA launched the New Horizons spacecraft on a three-billion mile mission to Pluto to conduct a five-month there in 2015

Nibiru cometh.




word.

The hidden world -- thought to be much bigger than Pluto based on the model -- could explain unusual features of the Kuiper Belt, a region of space beyond Neptune littered with icy and rocky bodies. Its existence would satisfy the long-held hopes and hypotheses for a "Planet X" envisioned by scientists and sci-fi buffs alike.

[edit on 20-6-2008 by prevenge]

[edit on 20-6-2008 by prevenge]

"Although the search for a distant planet in the solar system is old, it is far from over," said study team member Patryk Lykawka of Kobe University in Japan.

The model, created by Lykawka and Kobe University colleague Tadashi Mukai, is detailed in a recent issue of Astrophysical Journal.


If the new world is confirmed, it would not be technically a planet. Under a controversial new definition adopted by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) last week, it would instead be the largest known "plutoid."

The Kuiper Belt contains many peculiar features that can't be explained by standard solar system models. One is the highly irregular orbits of some of the belt's members.

The most famous is Sedna, a rocky object located three times farther from the sun than Pluto. Sedna takes 12,000 years to travel once around the Sun, and its orbit ranges from 80 to 100 astronomical units (AU). One AU is equal to the distance between the Earth and the Sun.

According to the model, Sedna and other Kuiper Belt oddities could be explained by a world 30 to 70 percent as massive as Earth orbiting between 100 AU and 200 AU from the sun.

those "craaazaay" "Sitchin-ists!!"

your thoughts ??

drip-drip "allowance" info-leaking? or purely "incongruent insufficient data publicly released through "trusted" (same people that bring you paris hilton) major media sources - "??

YOU DECIDE!



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[edit on 20-6-2008 by prevenge]

reply to post by prevenge


I already posted this about 10 minutes ago here

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Nice Illustrations though.

Edit to add:

Put together very well but your guiding peoples thoughts let them decide.

[edit on 20-6-2008 by rjmelter]

Originally posted by rjmelter
reply to post by prevenge

 

I already posted this about 10 minutes ago here

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Nice Illustrations though.

Edit to add:

Put together very well but your guiding peoples thoughts

let them decide.

[edit on 20-6-2008 by rjmelter]

i now dub you the 10-minute ninja.

it probably took me 10 min extra to cut and paste the locations of the photos from the actual article i was pasting from.

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Thats what I was thinking

Make me feel bad why dont ya!

[edit on 20-6-2008 by rjmelter]

Mods you can delete my thread if need be. If Prevenge renames his title to Planet X- Reopened

reply to post by rjmelter


nice computer model for the planet ! Somehow I guess that the sun would appear even smaller from that distance..

Here, a drawing shows Sedna, an object which could be part of this new world.

Yet more babbling BS. How can Sedna be a "part" of any new planet ? What sort of rubbish talk is that ?

A more correct statement would have been "the orbit of Sedna could be evidence for the existence of an undiscovered planet". That's because Sedna's current highly elliptical orbit could be a direct consequence of a series of close encounters with this undiscovered object.

Hey lets get the Thread GOING Again!

What do all you skeptics say. Because regardless it seems the scientific community think there is still more out there.

I for one believe them.

I dont belieive its in alignment to hit earth though. Perhaps the orbital patterns is influencing climates in some odd way tho? maybe?

OOOPs sorry for double post!

Sorry for one liner too!

[edit on 20-6-2008 by rjmelter]

Originally posted by Mogget

Here, a drawing shows Sedna, an object which could be part of this new world.

Yet more babbling BS. How can Sedna be a "part" of any new planet ? What sort of rubbish talk is that ?

A more correct statement would have been "the orbit of Sedna could be evidence for the existence of an undiscovered planet". That's because Sedna's current highly elliptical orbit could be a direct consequence of a series of close encounters with this undiscovered object.

well lets use our imaginations here, instead of caustically freaking on text from aol.

possibly what the quoted text meant to insue obviously or not, was that sedna is a satellite of a separate body...

darkstar anybody?....

lighten up man.


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I apologise for the tone of my previous post, but making simple mistakes like that doesn't inspire confidence in the source. Sedna is an object in orbit around the Sun. It does not orbit anything else.

Originally posted by sty
reply to post by rjmelter

 

nice computer model for the planet ! Somehow I guess that the sun would appear even smaller from that distance..

Good analogy! Wish he can throw in some coordinates so I can at least try to get a picture from my scope. However something even more interesting; (google search: Microsoft World Wide Telescope) You can download this telescope and locate the star Mufrid, you can see 2 red dwarf planets. Interesting.

Originally posted by rjmelter
Hey lets get the Thread GOING Again!

What do all you skeptics say. Because regardless it seems the scientific community think there is still more out there.

I for one believe them.

I don't believe its in alignment to hit earth though. Perhaps the orbital patterns is influencing climates in some odd way tho? maybe?

Good question. However you must remember that Sedna is further then Pluto, and like other planets that are closer to Sedna, that we do have some type of basic knowledge of (IE Uranus, and Neptune), if Sedna was the cause of some type of climate change, we would've probably seen it in these local planets, and alignment to hit earth is definitely out of the question. That thing is so far away, we would start seeing odd behavior of other plants or meteors in our solar system if it approaches. Science.com actually has an article on this