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‘Planet X’ Found? – Astronomers Discovered Two Large Objects in Our Solar System (+Video)
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array said the object is in the direction of the star system Alpha Centauri. More observations are needed to determine whether it is a dwarf planet or star.
Research groups from Sweden and Mexico have now submitted pre-prints of two research papers to arXiv that claim to have discovered a massive object at the edge of the solar system.
Using observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array in Chile during 2014 and 2015, the astronomers spied “a new blackbody point source” that appears to be moving in conjunction with the Alpha Centauri star system, about 4.3 light years from Earth.
The authors do not believe the new object is part of the Alpha Centuari system, however, because if it were that far away, such a star would have been bright enough to be seen before. Rather, they offer several explanations for the object, which one of the research teams named “Gna.” Perhaps most notably, they suggest a “Super Earth” at a distance of about 300 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun, or about six times further than Pluto is at its aphelion.
Another explanation is a “super-cool” brown dwarf (too big to be a planet, too small to be a star) at about 20,000 AU from the Sun.
Astronomers Find Object Deemed ‘Super-Earth’ in Solar System
http://www.missopen.com/science/astronomers-find-object-deemed-super-earth-in-solar-system/
Astronomers question claim of super planet found at solar system’s edge
http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/12/astronomers-question-claim-of-super-planet-found-at-solar-systems-edge/
A new submm source within a few arcseconds of α Centauri: ALMA discovers the most distant object of the solar system http://arxiv.org/abs/1512.02652
The serendipitous discovery of a possible new solar system object with ALMA http://arxiv.org/abs/1512.02650
Report of discovery of large object in far outer edges of solar system incites skeptical reactions
http://phys.org/news/2015-12-discovery-large-outer-edges-solar.html
Image credit: ESO
You don’t say……just discovered? You mean like….just now talking about, right?
Naval maps of earth with a new coast line for every nation have been around for over 30 years. Of course I suppose those maps could just be depicting huge oceanic underwater shelves. Only accessable at hundreds of feet deep. Right?
Nice writeup Elias.
I think this news is possibly the news of the decade.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6C8QwmWQ5A
Incidentally today, NEO wise spots a long period comet whose aphelion or radiant (if it is unbound to the sun) seems to be in or near the centaurus constellation. (deep south sky inclination, and virgo-ish longitude). The period of the comet isn’t established yet. The name of it is C/2015 YG1 .
Specs and orbit diagram from jpl orbit is here:
http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=C%2F2015%20YG1;old=0;orb=0;cov=0;log=0;cad=0#elem