It used to be easy to know how many planets there were: nine. It was nine planets for an entire generation before scientists began to think again about what counts as a planet. Pluto is outside, but some astronomers believe there is a true ninth planet. Others are not convinced, and the debate begins to shift in favor of the planet nine skeptics.
To be clear, there were cracks that claimed at different times that a tenth (or ninth) planet would collide with the earth. The scientific debate on Planet Nine focuses on a 2016 study written by astronomers Michael Brown and Konstantin Batygin. In it, the pair show how the unusual orbits of numerous extreme trans-Neptunian objects (ETNO) may be the result of a massive, undiscovered object in the outer solar system.
Other scientists were understandably skeptical about these allegations, but the evidence presented by Brown and Batygin was not as easy to refute as conspiracy theories about planet X. The orbits in the study are strange, and they support the idea that there is a massive something out there. However, we do not know that it is a planet, and mathematics suggests that it must be significantly larger than Earth. So where is it ?! Some scientists have speculated that Planet Nine may in fact be a small black hole – after all, the only evidence we have for Planet Nine is gravity.
A new pre-print study led by Kevin Napier of the University of Michigan offers an alternative explanation. Perhaps the alleged grouping of ETNO orbits in the outer solar system, according to the team, is an illusion caused by biased data. According to Napier, it is very difficult to spot the small ETNOs at such great distances. Astronomers therefore need to adjust their telescopes to focus on specific parts of the sky, taking into account the time of day and year. The result is allegedly an incomplete view of ETNOs. So, the grouping is not really groupings – it’s just the objects that Brown and Batygin accidentally cataloged.
Planet Nine may be the cause of the grouping of ETNO orbits.
The team went a step further by reporting 14 ETNOs that were not included in the initial Planet Nine article. They found no indication that these objects were affected by the alleged Planet Nine.
This study still needs to be peer-reviewed, but the team looks confident. Some of them are even out there talk on Twitter. Time will tell who is right about this, but Planet Nine fans will need new evidence to keep the fight going.
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