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Planet Nine: Mysterious planet is to blame for mass extinctions of life on Earth

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Kristin Moore
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« on: April 03, 2016, 03:01:03 pm »

Planet Nine: Mysterious planet is to blame for mass extinctions of life on Earth, scientist claims
The mysterious, hypothetical planet could every so often knock comets into the solar system and towards us, researcher says

    Andrew Griffin
    @_andrew_griffin
    Wednesday 30 March 2016 15:11 BST





This artistic rendering shows the distant view from Planet Nine back towards the sun. The planet is thought to be gaseous, similar to Uranus and Neptune. Hypothetical lightning lights up the night side Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC)
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Kristin Moore
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« Reply #1 on: April 03, 2016, 03:01:57 pm »

A mysterious, hidden planet that could be sitting on the edge of our solar system might be linked with periodic extinctions on Earth, according to a researcher.

The unconfirmed planet might trigger comet showers, bringing huge extinction events, according to a new paper by Daniel Whitmire, a retired astrophysics professor. The paper links the periodic extinction events that happen on Earth — which can be seen in the fossil record to wipe out huge parts of life on Earth about every 27 million years — with the unknown Planet 9.

Planet 9 has been said by some to exist for years. But in recent months two scientists claim to have found strong evidence that it exists — and one of those researchers said again recently that he had found further proof of the mysterious planet.
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Kristin Moore
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« Reply #2 on: April 03, 2016, 03:02:41 pm »

If those researchers are correct, then Planet 9 would be 10 times as big as Earth and would be 1,000 times further from the Sun than we are.

The mystery of the extinction events that happen every 27 million or so years is an equally long-investigated and mysterious problem. Nobody is really clear why the comets tend to arrive on such an apparently regular schedule — but potential other explanations include a companion star to our own sun or extra risk as we travel through the spiral arms of the Milky Way.

But the new theory suggests that if the idea of the periodic extinctions is true, then it may be that the particular orbit of Planet 9 is to blame. It proposes that as the planet moves around the solar system, it passes through the Kuiper Belt — an area of the outer solar system full of icy objects — every 27 million years, knocking comets towards us and into the inner solar system.

Once they arrive there, they can smash into the Earth and reduce the sunlight getting to us, potentially leading to the extinction events, the researchers claim.If those researchers are correct, then Planet 9 would be 10 times as big as Earth and would be 1,000 times further from the Sun than we are.

The mystery of the extinction events that happen every 27 million or so years is an equally long-investigated and mysterious problem. Nobody is really clear why the comets tend to arrive on such an apparently regular schedule — but potential other explanations include a companion star to our own sun or extra risk as we travel through the spiral arms of the Milky Way.

But the new theory suggests that if the idea of the periodic extinctions is true, then it may be that the particular orbit of Planet 9 is to blame. It proposes that as the planet moves around the solar system, it passes through the Kuiper Belt — an area of the outer solar system full of icy objects — every 27 million years, knocking comets towards us and into the inner solar system.

Once they arrive there, they can smash into the Earth and reduce the sunlight getting to us, potentially leading to the extinction events, the researchers claim.
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Kristin Moore
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« Reply #3 on: April 03, 2016, 03:03:56 pm »

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/planet-nine-mysterious-planet-is-to-blame-for-mass-extinctions-of-life-on-earth-scientist-claims-a6959776.html
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« Reply #4 on: April 03, 2016, 03:04:34 pm »



Has Planet Nine been flinging comets in our direction ? Image Credit: NASA/JPL -
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Kristin Moore
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« Reply #5 on: April 03, 2016, 03:05:03 pm »

A new theory has suggested that the new planet could be responsible for periodic mass extinction events.
Earlier this week we reported on how planetary scientists Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin from the California Institute of Technology had discovered new evidence pointing to the existence of a previously undiscovered Neptune-sized world in the outer solar system - the enigmatic Planet Nine.

Now in a new paper by retired astrophysics professor Daniel Whitmire, the existence of this ninth planet has been linked to something rather sinister - periodic mass extinction events.

According to Whitmire, these extinctions, which occur every 27 million years or so, may be caused by comets being flung towards us by Planet Nine's eccentric orbit through the Kuiper Belt.

Like with the asteroid that brought about the extinction of the dinosaurs, these heavenly bodies could easily be responsible for global disruptions capable of wiping out a multitude of species.

While at the moment it is practically impossible to prove that this is actually the case, if astronomers can determine once and for all if this enigmatic world really does exist out in the far reaches of the solar system then Whitmire's theory - and others like it - are likely to hold a great deal more weight -
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Kristin Moore
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« Reply #6 on: April 03, 2016, 03:06:02 pm »



Could there really be a Neptune-sized world in the outer solar system ? Image Credit: NASA
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Kristin Moore
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« Reply #7 on: April 03, 2016, 03:06:25 pm »

The case for a hidden gas giant in the outer solar system continues to go from strength to strength.
Believed to be up to ten times the mass of the Earth and with an orbital period of up to 20,000 years, this enigmatic world has been the subject of intense debate ever since researchers at the California Institute of Technology first revealed that its existence might actually be a very real possibility.

Back in January, planetary scientists Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin created a mathematical model indicating that a Neptune-sized object in the outer solar system could be influencing the movements of six smaller Kuiper Belt objects which appeared to be behaving rather oddly.

"We saw a strange signal in the data that meant something odd was going on in the outer Solar System," said Brown. "All of these distant objects were lined up in a weird way and that shouldn’t happen. We worked through the mundane explanations, but none of them worked out."

Now following further observations using the Canada France Hawaii Telescope, the researchers have revealed that a seventh object has been found which also conforms to their new model.

    Hey Planet Nine fans, a new eccentric KBO was discovered. And it is exactly where Planet Nine says it should be. pic.twitter.com/oZn0RDq8JF
    — Mike Brown (@plutokiller) March 24, 2016


The discovery adds further weight to the idea that Planet Nine really is out there and that it will only be a matter of time before astronomers are able to observe it directly.

If they do it will be one of the biggest astronomical discoveries ever made.
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Kristin Moore
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« Reply #8 on: April 03, 2016, 03:06:50 pm »

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« Reply #9 on: April 03, 2016, 03:07:39 pm »


Scientists just found more evidence that Planet Nine exists in our Solar System

And this new planet could be huge.
BEC CREW
29 MAR 2016


Back in January, the astronomer who led the charge to have Pluto demoted to dwarf planet status announced that he’d just found evidence that a huge, icy planet could be lurking on the edge of the Solar System, just past Neptune.

Mike Brown, a planetary astronomer at Caltech University, estimated that the hypothetical 'Planet Nine' appears to be circling the Sun on a super-elongated orbit that takes an incredible 10,000 to 20,000 years to complete. And now, thanks to a newly detected Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) that’s acting really strange, Brown says the case for Planet Nine just got a whole lot stronger.
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« Reply #10 on: April 03, 2016, 03:08:14 pm »

"Hey Planet Nine fans, a new eccentric KBO was discovered. And it is exactly where Planet Nine says it should be," Brown tweeted over the weekend.

So what do weirdly behaving KBOs have to do with finding a never-before-seen planet in our Solar System?

Well, when you’re suggesting that something as large as Planet Nine - which is estimated to be 10 times more massive than Earth and four times the size - exists within a fairly crowded patch of the Universe, you’d expect to see its considerable gravitational forces affect the smaller things floating around nearby.

And that’s exactly what Brown and his colleagues have been identifying.

"We saw a strange signal in the data that meant something odd was going on in the outer Solar System," Brown told Ian Sample at The Guardian back in January. "All of these distant objects were lined up in a weird way and that shouldn’t happen. We worked through the mundane explanations, but none of them worked out."
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« Reply #11 on: April 03, 2016, 03:08:34 pm »

A total of six KBOs were identified as 'lining up' strangely, and now a seventh KBO has been added to the list. As Loren Grush reports for The Verge, this seventh KBO appears to have been pushed into a strange orbit by some great force nearby, about 149 billion km from the Sun, which is where Planet Nine is expected to be located. That's 75 times more distant than Pluto.

The newest object was discovered by researchers using the Canada France Hawaii Telescope to conduct the massive Outer Solar System Origins Survey (OSSOS), the latest results of which were presented recently by astronomer Michele Bannister at the SETI Institute.

Brown points to a slide showing the KBO’s strange orbit from the talk as strengthening the case for Planet Nine.
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Kristin Moore
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« Reply #12 on: April 03, 2016, 03:08:59 pm »

Now, let’s be clear about the state of Planet Nine as it currently stands. There is now strong evidence, via the strange behaviours of seven known KBOs, that something huge is lurking in the far reaches of our Solar System.

A huge planet is a good guess, but because of how incredibly distant this region in space is from Earth, we can’t actually 'see' that far to visually confirm its existence. That means whatever circumstantial evidence we find for its existence needs to be incredibly solid, and we’re not there yet.

Brown’s yet to write up his claims that this new KBO is being influenced by a huge, nearby planet, and until they have been peer-reviewed, we have to treat them as very preliminary findings.

But more evidence - however preliminary - is exactly what Brown and other researchers need to either prove or disprove Planet Nine’s existence, so this is a very exciting discovery for all involved. We can't wait to see what else they find.
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« Reply #13 on: April 03, 2016, 03:09:20 pm »

Read these next:

    Astronomers have found evidence of huge ninth planet on the edge of the Solar System
    This is the clearest picture yet of what could be an ageing star's planet-forming dust
    Flash of light alerts astronomers to the strangest planetary orbit ever observed

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Kristin Moore
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« Reply #14 on: April 03, 2016, 03:09:30 pm »

http://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-just-found-more-evidence-that-planet-nine-exists-in-our-solar-system
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