reply to post by Xcalibur254
www.sciencedaily.com...
ScienceDaily (Feb. 21, 2011) — In November 2010, the scientific journal Icarus published a paper by astrophysicists John Matese and Daniel Whitmire,
who proposed the existence of a binary companion to our sun, larger than Jupiter, in the long-hypothesized "Oort cloud" -- a faraway repository of
small icy bodies at the edge of our solar system. The researchers use the name "Tyche" for the hypothetical planet. Their paper argues that evidence
for the planet would have been recorded by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE).
WISE is a NASA mission, launched in December 2009, which scanned the entire celestial sky at four infrared wavelengths about 1.5 times. It captured
more than 2.7 million images of objects in space, ranging from faraway galaxies to asteroids and comets relatively close to Earth. Recently, WISE
completed an extended mission, allowing it to finish a complete scan of the asteroid belt, and two complete scans of the more distant universe, in two
infrared bands. So far, the mission's discoveries of previously unknown objects include an ultra-cold star or brown dwarf, 20 comets, 134 near-Earth
objects (NEOs), and more than 33,000 asteroids in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Following its successful survey, WISE was put into hibernation in February 2011. Analysis of WISE data continues. A preliminary public release of the
first 14 weeks of data is planned for April 2011, and the final release of the full survey is planned for March 2012.
Frequently Asked Questions
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.
Q: Is it a certainty that WISE would have observed such a planet if it exists?
A: It is likely but not a foregone conclusion that WISE could confirm whether or not Tyche exists. Since WISE surveyed the whole sky once, then
covered the entire sky again in two of its infrared bands six months later, WISE would see a change in the apparent position of a large planet body in
the Oort cloud over the six-month period. The two bands used in the second sky coverage were designed to identify very small, cold stars (or brown
dwarfs) -- which are much like planets larger than Jupiter, as Tyche is hypothesized to be.
Q: If Tyche does exist, why would it have taken so long to find another planet in our solar system?
A: Tyche would be too cold and faint for a visible light telescope to identify. Sensitive infrared telescopes could pick up the glow from such an
object, if they looked in the right direction. WISE is a sensitive infrared telescope that looks in all directions.
Q: Why is the hypothesized object dubbed "Tyche," and why choose a Greek name when the names of other planets derive from Roman mythology?
A: In the 1980s, a different companion to the sun was hypothesized. That object, named for the Greek goddess "Nemesis," was proposed to explain
periodic mass extinctions on Earth. Nemesis would have followed a highly elliptical orbit, perturbing comets in the Oort Cloud roughly every 26
million years and sending a shower of comets toward the inner solar system. Some of these comets would have slammed into Earth, causing catastrophic
results to life. Recent scientific analysis no longer supports the idea that extinctions on Earth happen at regular, repeating intervals. Thus, the
Nemesis hypothesis is no longer needed. However, it is still possible that the sun could have a distant, unseen companion in a more circular orbit
with a period of a few million years -- one that would not cause devastating effects to terrestrial life. To distinguish this object from the
malevolent "Nemesis," astronomers chose the name of Nemesis's benevolent sister in Greek mythology, "Tyche."
JPL manages and operates the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The principal investigator,
Edward Wright, is at UCLA. The mission was competitively selected under NASA's Explorers Program managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center,
Greenbelt, Md. The science instrument was built by the Space Dynamics Laboratory, Logan, Utah, and the spacecraft was built by Ball Aerospace &
Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. Science operations and data processing take place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California
Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. More information is online at
www.nasa.gov... wise.astro.ucla.edu...
and
www.jpl.nasa.gov...
A couple of things here...they admit and give a few numbers on the things that WISE has discovered but they wont release it until March 2012 at best.
They will release some preliminary information April 2011.
I have a feeling since its ran by NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory? that they will not tell us its heading this way due to the simple fact if it
was....we couldn't see it. So its a need to know basis for TPTB. We probably wont know about it just like the 2X Jupiter sized comet that passed us
February 18th, 2003 that should have killed all of us and pulled Mercury into the sun. Physicists are amazed why where still here. Now...if that
isnt proof that were in the dark on things related to there seriousness then I dont know what is.
Comet C/2002 V1 (NEAT) is a non-periodic comet that appeared in November, 2002. The comet appeared with a magnitude of approximately –0.5, making it
currently the 7th brightest comet seen in 70 years.[1] It was seen by SOHO in February 2003. It was calculated that the comet came closer to the sun
than the Asteroid belt in September 2002.[2] (Slight controversy arose when the comet failed to break up when it approached the sun, as expected by
some scientists if it were a small comet.[3])
The comet was hit by a Coronal mass ejection during its pass near the sun[4]; some rumoured it had "disturbed" the sun, but scientists dismissed
this notion.[3] After the comet left LASCO's field of view around February 23, an object was seen at the bottom of the images. Although technicians
dismissed this as a glitch, rumours persisted that the comet had been expelled from the sun.
en.wikipedia.org...
sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov...
Caption: Although comet NEAT (C/2002 V1) was not visible in the LASCO images until about 16:00 (Universal Time) on February 16, it had in fact been
tracked by SOHO since December 31 last year. The color markup on the SWAN image (bottom) shows the paths traced out by the two comets NEAT and
Kudo-Fujikawa. The red ellipse indicates the area where comet NEAT first becomes visible. As it disappears "over the edge" of the map, it enters on
the other (left) side.
This comet wasn't even visible to us until a few days prior. Feb 16th then passed by Feb18th 2003. Hmmmm. Cant see it so it must not be there.
Oh...and it was being tracked only a few months earlier December 31st 2002. They wont tell us anything...peeps like us will just be fighting each
other on forums like this until a day or two before hand...and that's if were observant.
