"The Ninth Planet" is a mysterious hidden planet that is hiding (or not hiding) at a great distance from our Sun, but in our Solar System, continues to lead astronomers by the nose. She has become something of a "Loch Ness monster" among the planets - maybe she exists, maybe not, but scientists believe that they have every reason to believe that it exists.
But if we found eight (and a half) planets in our solar system, why is it so difficult to add the ninth to the passport? Oddly enough, light, space and human technology are involved in all this.
When will we find the ninth planet?
Let's be clear for a moment: Planet Nine does not officially exist … yet. Observing distant trans-Neptunian objects on the outer edge of the solar system, astronomers have seen a strange picture.
Small bodies seem to obey the movement of something larger, but no one knows exactly what. Perhaps this is a cluster of asteroids; perhaps the planet is 20 times heavier than Earth. The first option would be an interesting discovery; the second is monumental.
According to the Washington Post, scientists hope, fingers crossed, that future telescopes will be able to look far enough, and with sufficient sensitivity, to see what is there. They may be disappointed if a potential planet turns out to be too dim to detect.
The brightness of a planet decreases exponentially as it moves away from the Sun. If the ninth planet does exist, it could be 1000 times farther from the Sun than Earth. This distance is measured in astronomical units (AU). The most optimistic scientists believe that we can find a planet at a distance of 1000 AU, but no further. Neptune, the farthest planet in our solar system, is only 30 AU away. from us, so you yourself can guess how difficult it can be to detect planets at a distance of 1000 AU.
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If the ninth planet is in the elliptical orbit that astronomers suggest to it, and if we are looking for it at the wrong time and in the wrong place, we may have to wait hundreds or even thousands of years for the planet to return to a distance of 1000 AU. from which we can observe it. Astronomers of the future will have something to work on.
Ilya Khel
