PHYS.ORG :Unseen 'planetary mass object' signalled

>While most KBOs—debris left over from the formation of the solar system—orbit the sun with orbital tilts (inclinations) that average out to what planetary scientists call the invariable plane of the solar system, the most distant of the Kuiper Belt's objects do not. Their average plane, Volk and Malhotra discovered, is tilted away from the invariable plane by about eight degrees. In other words, something unknown is warping the average orbital plane of the outer solar system. "The most likely explanation for our results is that there is some unseen mass," says Volk, a postdoctoral fellow at LPL and the lead author of the study. "According to our calculations, something as massive as Mars would be needed to cause the warp that we measured."

>>19191664
Ok, I'm legitimately scared now. What is this?

> "But going further out from 50 to 80 AU, we found that the average plane actually warps away from the invariable plane," she explains. "There is a range of uncertainties for the measured warp, but there is not more than 1 or 2 percent chance that this warp is merely a statistical fluke of the limited observational sample of KBOs."

>In other words, the effect is most likely a real signal rather than a statistical fluke. According to the calculations, an object with the mass of Mars orbiting roughly 60 AU from the sun on an orbit tilted by about eight degrees (to the average plane of the known planets) has sufficient gravitational influence to warp the orbital plane of the distant KBOs within about 10 AU to either side.

>So why haven't we found it yet? Most likely, according to Malhotra and Volk, because we haven't yet searched the entire sky for distant solar system objects. The most likely place a planetary mass object could be hiding would be in the galactic plane, an area so densely packed with stars that solar system surveys tend to avoid it. "The chance that we have not found such an object of the right brightness and distance simply because of the limitations of the surveys is estimated to be to about 30 percent," Volk said.

>>19191664

The thing would have be moving nearly the speed of light to get to us within our life times.

>>19191664
inb4 nibiru

>>19191672
>>19191681

something closer and smaller than the "hypothetical Planet Nine"

>"The observed distant KBOs are concentrated in a ring about 30 AU wide and would feel the gravity of such a planetary mass object over time," Volk said, "so hypothesizing one planetary mass to cause the observed warp is not unreasonable across that distance." This rules out the possibility that the postulated object in this case could be the hypothetical Planet Nine, whose existence has been suggested based on other observations. That planet is predicted to be much more massive (about 10 Earth masses) and much farther out at 500 to 700 AU. "That is too far away to influence these KBOs," Volk said. "It certainly has to be much closer than 100 AU to substantially affect the KBOs in that range."

>>19191677
False.
It would take between a few months and 10 years depending of it's speed.
Anyway it's orbiting in a relatively stable orbit so... no danger for us.

>>19191683

They don't even know what or exactly where it is.. How could they determine its orbit?

>>19191682
Alien mothership?

>>19191688
Because the warped objects aren't being ejected to the inner Solar system, they just adjusted their orbits.

>>19191694

The size of Mars?

>>not even a fighting chance

File: 480px-TheKuiperBelt_Orbits_Pluto_Polar_PL.svg.png (23KB, 480x480px) Image search: [Google]

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> but there is not more than 1 or 2 percent chance that this warp is merely a statistical fluke of the limited observational sample of KBOs."

over 98% sure it's there?

> According to the calculations, an object with the mass of Mars orbiting roughly 60 AU

Neptune is at 30 AU, Pluto is 30 to 50 AU away, so it would be a little bit farther and Mars sized.

>>19191699

So a giant dead rock is spinning around 100 million miles away and won't effect anything we do for a 1000 years (assuming we ever develop space travel). Why are we even taking about this?

>>19191711
Because we were searching the Kuiper planet for years?

>>19191711

an Alium space base to observe us could be there.

>>19191677
At the speed of light it would take about 13 hours to reach us. If it traveled instead at about 30 km/s (the speed at which the earth orbits the sun) then the object could be here in a little under 16 years.

>>19191711
Because it's awesome! I love space!

>>19191711
>100 milion miles
>1 AU is roughly 93 million miles
> 60 AUs

File: 1129087018806.gif (84KB, 250x188px) Image search: [Google]

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>>19192535
Fuck yeah

Nibiru confirmed

File: tmp_21032-14980247986391810915774.gif (2MB, 247x250px) Image search: [Google]

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Mfw this thread is evidence that x is far and away the lowest iq board on 4chin besides b

>>19193629

Yeah, but only since you've strolled on in

It's a computronium sphere under a very stealthy shell. Stealth that doesn't stop gravity, so good job spotting its gravitic influence! Yay humanity! Ever onwards, the future is bright!

>>19191677
>he thinks the light of speed is the highest possible speed in the universe