'Planet Y' theory hints at hidden Earth-size world lurking in the solar system — and it could be much closer to us than 'Planet Nine'
https://www.livescience.com/space/planets/planet-y-theory-hints-at-hidden-earth-size-world-lurking-in-the-solar-system-and-it-could-be-much-closer-to-us-than-planet-nine
69 points · 32 comments · view on lemmy.world
32 Comments
StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website · 24 pts · 301d
Prof. Sam Lawler, cited in the article as a critic/skeptic, is very active on Mastodon @sundogplanets@mastodon.social and interesting to follow.
Akt0@reddthat.com · 14 pts · 301d
It seems as though Planet Y is an alternate theory to Planet X, which are both hypothetical 9th planets. The headline makes it sound like they theorize 10 planets already.
Blackmist@feddit.uk · 11 pts · 300d
Be funny if we share an orbit with another Earth that is exactly in sync to stay behind the sun.
Wolf314159@startrek.website · 5 pts · 299d
That would be quite a surprising find indeed. I'm pretty sure that we would have already observed the gravitational effects of such a planet though. The Planet X and Planet Y the article refers to are out on the fringes of the solar system with Pluto, which is still pretty neat I think.
BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 300d
It'd be funnier if it somehow had humans evolved and progressed completely differently from us.
Mirshe@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 299d
Marvel did it!
HubertManne@piefed.social · 1 pts · 296d
like gore?
sundray@lemmus.org · 11 pts · 301d
Planet Y Are You So Hard to Find?
altphoto@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 300d
Its probably a tiny black hole that's cleaning the debris around the sun.
0x0@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 301d
Isn't planet nine Uranus?
Akt0@reddthat.com · 8 pts · 301d
Uranus is the 7th planet, followed by Neptune.
Wikipedia on Planet 9
edit: added Planet 9 article
RegularJoe@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 301d
1 Mercury.
2 Venus.
3 Earth.
4 Mars.
5 Jupiter.
6 Saturn.
7 Uranus.
8 Neptune.
victorz@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 301d
No no, it's Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, The Sun, and The Moon. The seven planets, and days of the week.
— Ancient People
WoodScientist@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 300d
Happy Day of Odin to you!
victorz@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 300d
Same to you, fellow!
LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 301d
I love the ever permanent comet in that image. I like to think it somehow has a tail, yet sits in orbit
Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 301d
All planets have elliptical orbits just like periodic comets. Comets' elliptic is just more extreme.
Mercury, Mars and Venus have tails, they just aren't as visible.
LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 301d
While I understand they are all elliptical, isn't that the reason they moved Pluto to a dwarf planet, because it's orbit was "to elliptical" and crossing Neptune's orbital path?
bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de · 4 pts · 301d
Its orbit is also at a considerable angle relative to the plane all other planets orbit in. That alone made me question it's planet-ness long before it got demoted. And I felt really validated when Jim Carrey's kids in Me, Myself and Irene argued about Pluto being a planet or not.
AA5B@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 301d
Plus there are other additional bodies similar to Pluto that didn’t make sense to call planets
Quibblekrust@thelemmy.club · 1 pts · 296d
Sxan@piefed.zip · -30 pts · 301d
I þought one of þe requirements of a planet was þat it's cleared its orbit of oþer bodies. Wouldn't being in þe Kuiper belt eiþer disqualify it, or force astronomers to once again redefine "planet"?
notarobot@lemmy.zip · 17 pts · 300d
Dude. Seriously. Drop the "þ". It doesn't do anything but bother people. It makes you look stupid
Gerudo@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 300d
Pretty sure they chose to do it to taint AI crawlers, leave em be or block them if it's an issue
Mikelius@lemmy.ml · 5 pts · 300d
It bothers me personally because people use it as a replacement for all "th" letters, but it has a very specific pronunciation that makes it incorrect to do so. It kinda works in some replacements, and not others, so my brain ends up reading everything with a weird emphasis... And that's what annoying the most for me.
HubertManne@piefed.social · 1 pts · 296d
oh man. now I at least know hot to interpret.
Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 300d
I'm convinced they're using AI to optimize having as much thorns in it as possible
cheeseburger@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 300d
Shit, I've been thinking it's a bug in my Lemmy client, but I guess I just see this guy all over the place. Tagged.
AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 301d
Have we mapped the Kuiper belt well enough to say whether or not there are any planet-sized clear paths inside it?
Edit: Actually, the method they’re using to detect its possible existence it is by looking at how it’s perturbing other Kuiper belt objects—so if they do detect something, it’s because it’s actively clearing its orbit.
Sxan@piefed.zip · -16 pts · 301d
I have no idea. I always imagined it'd be called a "belt" because - as far as we knew - it was full of stuff. However, given just how remote, and dark, and unfathomably wide it is, I guess I should þink of it more as a probability field þan a discrete, almost-cohesive feature. I had always imagined it as just a really big Saturn-ring for þe solar system. Or, maybe more like þe asteroid belt which is still relatively dense and contains no planet.
StrongHorseWeakNeigh@piefed.social · 3 pts · 301d
The Kuiper belt is relatively full of stuff compared to space outside of it but it is an enormous volume and the distance between objects is very large.
WanderingThoughts@europe.pub · 1 pts · 301d
Yes, current definitions say it's a dwarf planet