Not so fast: why there likely isn’t a large planet out beyond Pluto (Synopsis) [Starts With A Bang]

“Finding out that something you have just discovered is considered all but impossible is one of the joys of science.” -Mike Brown

Earlier today, the team of Pluto-killer Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin announced that they had found evidence of a ninth planet in our Solar System beyond the orbit of Pluto, larger and more massive than even Earth.

However, a closer inspection of the work shows that they predict a few things that haven’t been observed, including a population of Kuiper belt objects with large inclinations and retrograde orbits, long-period Kuiper belt objects with opposite ecliptic latitudes and longitudes, and infrared data showing the emission from such an outer world. There are many good reasons to be skeptical, and not conclude that there’s a ninth planet without more (and better) evidence.

Image credit: K. Batygin and M. E. Brown Astronom. J. 151, 22 (2016), with modifications/additions by E. Siegel.

Go read the whole story — and additional information you won’t find anywhere else — over at Forbes.

from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1JiIzoz

“Finding out that something you have just discovered is considered all but impossible is one of the joys of science.” -Mike Brown

Earlier today, the team of Pluto-killer Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin announced that they had found evidence of a ninth planet in our Solar System beyond the orbit of Pluto, larger and more massive than even Earth.

However, a closer inspection of the work shows that they predict a few things that haven’t been observed, including a population of Kuiper belt objects with large inclinations and retrograde orbits, long-period Kuiper belt objects with opposite ecliptic latitudes and longitudes, and infrared data showing the emission from such an outer world. There are many good reasons to be skeptical, and not conclude that there’s a ninth planet without more (and better) evidence.

Image credit: K. Batygin and M. E. Brown Astronom. J. 151, 22 (2016), with modifications/additions by E. Siegel.

Go read the whole story — and additional information you won’t find anywhere else — over at Forbes.

from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1JiIzoz