Science and Technology Desk: Scientists have been curious about the solar system since ancient times. As a result, with the advancement of science and technology, we know many unknown secrets of the solar system. Many planets have been discovered outside the solar system so far. But the presence of another planet within the solar system is yet to be discovered.
So is there a ninth planet in the solar system and can it be found? Such a question looms large in the minds of many scientifically minded people.
Our solar system is a small part of the Milky Way galaxy. Among them are four rocky planets. Four planets again have no solid surface. Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars orbit the Sun closely. They are smaller than the gas planets. On the other hand, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are far away from the Sun as gas planets.
Neptune, the blue giant planet, travels 30 times farther from the Sun than Earth. Beyond Neptune’s orbit lies an icy region called the Kuiper Belt. The planet is considered to be far away from there. Scientists call it ‘Planet Nine’ as it is the ninth planet. There are reasons behind the existence of such a planet.
The orbits of some cosmic objects in the Kuiper Belt are highly elliptical and curved. Scientists think this is caused by being pulled in by another large object nearby. Remember that all eight known planets in our solar system revolve around the Sun in circular orbits.
Astronomers have already checked how and where this ‘Planet Nine’ orbits the Sun. To that end, they visualized the unimaginable distances of our solar system through computer simulations. Cosmic objects of different sizes and orbits are also considered in that calculation. An approximate planetary orbit is drawn based on all the data.
According to scientists, ‘Planet Nine’ travels 20 times farther from the Sun than Neptune. It is ten times heavier than Earth. It takes four days for sunlight to reach there. Because of this, it is considered more difficult to find this planet. A planet at such a distance would reflect very little light.
The Hubble Space Telescope has identified a planet in another solar system. It orbits the binary star at the same distance as ‘Planet Nine’. By testing this, scientists hope to gain new knowledge about the ninth planet.
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