Scientists have discovered a possible new dwarf planet at the edge of our solar system, so far-flung that it takes around 25,000 years to complete one cycle around the sun.
The researchers at the Institute for Advanced Study and Princeton University who were searching for "Planet Nine", discovered this object, known as 2017 OF201,
For the unversed, "Planet Nine" is a hypothetical planet which is reportedly larger than Earth that is thought to orbit beyond Neptune. Some astronomers theorize that a mysterious ninth planet, which so far remains undetected, could explain an unusual clustering of objects and other anomalies observed in the outer solar system.
While the researchers were busy searching for the elusive Planet Nine, they came across this new resident in our cosmic backyard.
"Extreme Cousin" To Pluto
Sihao Cheng, a member at the Institute for Advanced Study who led the research team, said, "It's not very different from how Pluto was discovered," adding, "This project was really an adventure."
If confirmed, Cheng describes the newly discovered dwarf planet as a "extreme cousin" to Pluto. The results were published on the preprint website arXiv but have not yet been peer-reviewed.
Cheng and his colleagues believe that 2017 OF201 is around 435 miles across, far smaller than Pluto, which is nearly 1,500 miles across.
A dwarf planet is a celestial entity that orbits the sun and has enough mass and gravity to be mostly spherical, but unlike other planets, its orbital path is not free of asteroids and other debris.
Eritas Yang, one of the study's co-authors and a PhD student at Princeton University, stated that one of the most intriguing aspects of 2017 OF201 is its extraordinarily elongated orbit. At its farthest point from the sun, the object is more than 1,600 times the distance between Earth and the Sun.
The dwarf planet candidate was discovered after methodically filtering through a massive data set collected by a Chilean telescope probing the universe for hints of dark energy. By combining data over time, the researchers found a moving item with predictable movements.
2017 OF201 is likely one of the most distant visible objects in the solar system, however, its discovery suggests that there could be other dwarf planets populating that region of space.
"It Was Just Hidden There"
"We were using public data that has been there for a long time," said Jiaxuan Li, a study co-author and a graduate student at Princeton University. "It was just hidden there."
According to Li, the object is currently near to the sun, so the researchers will need to wait approximately a month before conducting follow-up investigations with ground-based telescopes. The scientists are also hoping to someday get some time to explore the object using the Hubble Space Telescope or the James Webb Space Telescope.
Meanwhile, Cheng has stated that he will continue his quest for Planet Nine. The latest discovery, however, may put a kink in certain long-held hypotheses about the planet's existence.
Planet Nine's concept is that a planet several times the size of Earth in the outer solar system could explain why a collection of icy objects appear to be in unusually close orbits.
"Under the influence of Planet Nine, all objects that do not have this specific orbital geometry will eventually become unstable and get kicked out of the solar system," according to Yang.
2017 OF201's elongated orbit distinguishes it from the clustered objects, but Yang's calculations indicate that its orbit should remain stable over the next billion years.
In other words, if Planet Nine exists, 2017 OF201 will most likely be unable to remain. However, Yang stated that further investigation is needed, and that the finding of a new dwarf planet candidate does not necessarily spell the end of Planet Nine.
For starters, the simulations only used one location for Planet Nine, although experts disagree on where the imaginary planet lurks – if it exists at all.
Konstantin Batygin, a planetary science professor at the California Institute of Technology, hypothesized the existence of Planet Nine in a 2016 article co-authored with his Caltech colleague Mike Brown.
Object In Chaotic Orbit?
He stated that the discovery of 2017 OF201 does neither prove nor contradict the notion. According to Batygin, the objects in the outer solar system that are most likely to leave a footprint of Planet Nine's gravity are those with the closest points on their orbits around the sun that are still far enough away from Neptune to not interact strongly.
"This one, unfortunately, does not fall into that category," Batygin told NBC. "This object is in a chaotic orbit, so when it comes to the question, 'What does it truly imply for Planet Nine?' The answer isn't much, because things are chaotic."
Batygin said he was excited to see the new study because it adds more context to how objects came to be in the outer solar system, and he called the researchers' efforts mining public data sets "heroic."
Cheng, for his part, said he hasn't abandoned hope of finding Planet Nine.
"This whole project started as a search for Planet Nine, and I'm still in that mode," he said. "But this is an interesting story for scientific discovery. Who knows if Planet Nine exists, but it can be interesting if you're willing to take some risks."
