Just read about it: New planet with 3 suns. The movements are very curious:
http://phys.org/news/2016-07-newly-planet-suns.html
Just read about it: New planet with 3 suns. The movements are very curious:
http://phys.org/news/2016-07-newly-planet-suns.html
"I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row
That is, indeed a strange system of suns and planet, Danik!
They must have pulled it off, I wondered why NASA was so worried about the outcome.
Originally Posted by tailor STATELY
I didn't know there were solar systems with three suns before. I wonder if there are solar systems with a larger number of suns.
It is possible. I've not been able to work out how much light any of the suns shed on the planet. I think the planet takes half a millenium to complete an orbit. Some of the suns may be so far away from the planet that they look like stars.
I guess we are witnessing a new kopernican revolution. Our solar system that for a very long time was the only one, has become one of many. I wonder what new astronomical discoveries are in store.
"I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row
Yes, it is s very exciting time in astronomy. There are even blogs in astronomy - "Eagle's Eye in the Sky" is one.
EXTREME TRANS-NEPTUNIAN OBJECTS AND PLANET 9
Plataforma SINC
In an effort to discover a ninth planet in the Solar System (Pluto no
longer having that distinction, being demoted), scientists in various
countries have been trying to calculate its orbit from the paths
followed by small bodies that move well beyond Neptune. Now,
astronomers from Spain and Cambridge University have confirmed, with
new calculations, that the orbits of the six extreme trans-Neptunian objects
that served as a reference to announce the existence of Planet Nine are
not as stable as it was thought. At the beginning of this year, astronomers
announced that they had found evidence of the existence of a giant planet
with a mass ten times larger than the Earth's in the confines of the Solar
System. Moving in an unusually elongated orbit, the planet would take
between 10,000 and 20,000 years to complete one revolution around the
Sun. To arrive at that conclusion, the team ran computer simulations with
input data based on the orbits of six extreme trans-Neptunian objects
(ETNOs): Sedna, 2012 VP113, 2004 VN112, 2007TG422, 2013 RF98
and 2010 GB174. Now, however, the team has considered the question
the other way round: how would the orbits of those six ETNOs evolve if a
Planet Nine, such as the one proposed, really did exist? With the orbit
indicated by the Caltech astronomers for Planet Nine, calculations show
that the six ETNOs would move in lengthy, unstable orbits. Those objects
would escape from the Solar System in less than 1.5 billion years, and in
the case of 2004 VN112, 2007 TG422 and 2013 RF98 they could
abandon it in less than 300 million years; what is more important, their
orbits would become unstable in just 10 million years, a really short time in
astronomical terms.
According to the new study, based on numerical (N-body) simulations, the
orbit of the new planet would have to be modified slightly so that the
orbits of the six ETNOs analysed would be really stable for a long time.
Those results also lead to a new question: are the ETNOs a transient and
unstable population or, on the contrary, are they permanent and stable?
The behaviour of those objects in one way or the other affects the
evolution of their orbits and also the numerical modelling. If the ETNOs
are transient, they are being continuously ejected and must have a
stable source located beyond 1,000 astronomical units (in the Oort
cloud) where they come from. But if they are stable in the long term,
then there could be many in similar orbits although we have not observed
them yet. In any case, the statistical and numerical evidence obtained
by the authors, both through this investigation and previous work, leads
them to suggest that the most stable picture is one in which there is
not just one planet, but rather several more beyond Pluto, in mutual
resonance. The situation is reminiscent of the one leading to the
discovery of Neptune, in which the French mathematician Urbain Le
Verrier was the first to "discover" a new planet by means of laborious
hand calculations based on the positions of Uranus, whereupon the German
astronomer J. G Galle directly observed it. If Neptune was the first
planet discovered by pen and paper, Planet Nine could be the first to
be discovered entirely from computerized numerical calculations.
It is interesting that the orbits of the six trans-Neptunian objects are more erratic than expected.
Another Dwarf Planet has been discovered in the kuiper belt far beyond Pluto: http://www.space.com/33387-dwarf-pla...015-rr245.html
It looks like the odds favor many dwarf planets rather than one big planet 9.
Here is a possible candidate. I'm impressed at the quantity of new discoveries.
http://www.space.com/33387-dwarf-pla...015-rr245.html
"I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row
I don't think the large planet 9 idea is considered by anyone to be dismissed. See this link: http://www.news.com.au/technology/sc...ar/news-story/
Yes, Danik, the smaller Pluto was found when New Horizons were looking to find another kuiper belt object worth investigating. It may even have its own moons, too, like Pluto does.
I couldn´t open your link, DW, maybe because of international restrictions. I wonder what kind of impact all these findings will have on other sciences that have the untilnow known solar system for reference.
"I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row
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