I think “15 times further from the Sun than Pluto” is more meaningful for most readers than “700 times further from the Sun than Earth.” If it exists, it’s way way way out there.
I find one theory regarding Planet 9 especially interesting, and that is that it could be a primordial black hole with a Schwarzschild radius on the order of just a few centimeters. So basically, just a golf ball-sized black hole. This would explain why we can see the gravitational effects on the other objects as described in many papers, and it would also explain at the same time why we have no direct observation of this object, because it's simply too tiny and black.
This <i>cannot</i> be evidence of Planet 9 (the Batygin and Brown hypothesis)—it's outright incompatible with it.<p><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/plutokiller.com/post/3lnqm2ymbd22r" rel="nofollow">https://bsky.app/profile/plutokiller.com/post/3lnqm2ymbd22r</a><p>If those two spots are the same object, that object is on a high-inclination orbit; but the pattern the Planet 9 hypothesis explains is only compatible with a low-inclination object.
700 times further => isn't it farther rather than further?<p>Non native english speaker here, but last I checked further was a metaphorical distance, when farther was a literal distance. You can push a concept further, but you walk farther right? Or did I miss something?
My lay scientist feel is still that Pluto is a planet, or at the very least have been grandfathered in. The New Horizons reporting 10 years ago just solidified this in my mind. The geological processes are more telling than having cleared the orbital neighborhood. That would just mean that get far enough out and nothing can be a planet no matter how massive. All that said, this massive of an object that far out is very interesting. It would be a very, very cold out there. Would even a gas giant be a solid at that distance? Are there any geological processes possible?
I can clearly see the object as a bright group of pixels in the IRAS image, but I don't see a damn thing at the spot they hilight in the AKARI image. Like, are they kidding or is this a crap article with the wrong image or something?
is such a excentric orbitting body not like a giant guitar string when it comes to the gravitational influence of "passing bye" solar systems and black holes?
love how nerdy this whole thread gets - so much hot debate for basically a frozen rock way out there. you think we're ever gonna agree on what counts as a planet or is it always just moving goalposts?
we already have a 9'th planet, but due to the greatest pedantic campain of all time, pluto got demoted. Though given the current situation, ha!, that could change.....perhaps the naming commity will get noticed, and be offered a chance to do a deal, and Make Pluto A Planet Again,(MPAPA)