On the outskirts of the solar system, there may be a large disk of icy celestial bodies, according to researchers from the University of Cambridge and the American University of Beirut. In their opinion, the existence of such a structure could explain the highly elongated orbits of some objects in the Kuiper belt, which surrounds the solar system. At the same time, earlier scientists put forward theories that the mysterious ninth planet causes anomalies in the trajectory of these bodies.
The hypothesis of the existence of a ninth planet, located much further than Pluto, was first put forward by scientists at the California Institute of Technology in 2016. Astronomers have suggested that the gravitational influence of a massive gas giant in the backyard of the solar system could explain the unusually elongated orbits of celestial bodies in the Kuiper belt. Recall that the Kuiper belt extends from the orbit of Neptune and consists of hundreds of thousands of small ice bodies - trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) - and some of them have highly elongated elliptical orbits. To date, about 30 such "anomalous" TNOs are known.
“The 'ninth planet' hypothesis is exciting, but if this planet really exists, for some reason it has not yet been discovered. We decided to find out if there is another, simpler and more natural reason that would explain the elongated orbits of some TNOs,”said the author of the study, PhD student at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge University Antranik Sefilyan.
Scientists have suggested that the object affecting the orbits of TNO may not be a planet, but a cluster of many ice bodies in the form of a disk.
During the study, scientists simulated the orbital motion of TNO on a computer. At the same time, experts took into account the gravitational influence of the four gas giants and a hypothetical ice disk outside Neptune. The simulation results showed that the attraction of a disk of small ice bodies with a total mass ten times the Earth's, explains the highly elongated orbits of some TNOs.
“If we remove the ninth planet from the model and replace it with many small objects scattered over a vast area, then the combined attraction of these bodies can easily explain the existence of elongated orbits for some TNOs,” Sefilyan added.
However, the researchers did not rule out the "ninth planet" hypothesis. In their opinion, the attraction of the massive gas giant could also explain the "anomalous" orbits of nearly 30 TNOs. Doubts are only caused by the fact that such a massive planet has not yet been discovered by any telescope. The scientists concluded that the discovery of new TNOs with elliptical orbits would confirm one of the hypotheses.
Anastasia Ksenofontova
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