What is Planet Nine?

Planet Nine is a hypothetical planet that is said to be 10 times the size of the Earth and orbits far beyond Neptune a highly eccentric orbit around the Sun. It was first proposed in 2012 to explain perturbations in the orbits of draft planets beyond Neptune’s orbit, which are called Kuiper Belt objects. Its existence is yet to be confirmed. Recently, an exoplanet 336 light years from the Earth was found to have Planet Nine-like characteristics in its star system. It has been named HD106906 b. This newly discovered object is found to influence the behaviour of various objects its system just like Planet Nine in the solar system.

The HD106906 b is eleven times the mass of Jupiter. It is unusually far from its pair of host stars just like planet nine. The binary star of HD106906 b is 15 million years old, while the sun is 4.6 billion years old.

What is Planet Nine?

It is not a new discovery. Planet nine had appeared in the images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2004. According to Astronomer, the objects in Kuiper belt are peculiarly designed due to Planet Nine. Also, in 2018, the astronomers found a peculiar object called the 2015 BP519 orbiting the solar system. The object was peculiar as it orbited the solar system at a tilt of 54 degree Celsius as compared to other planets. The tilt will be unexplained without planet nine.

The astronomers believe that the interactions between the giant plants in the solar system such as Neptune, Jupiter might have kicked the Planet Nine out of the inner solar system.

Why is the new Exoplanet compared to Planet Nine?

Both the newly discovered exoplanet and planet nine are far out in their stellar systems. They orbit their respective stars at an extreme tilt. They are both massive to influence the behaviour of other objects.

Month: Current Affairs - December, 2020