Pluto gone, But Two more planets to be hiding somewhere out in the dark
If you grew up like me, reading about Pluto as the ninth planet, only to finally be told that Pluto was a rock or some sort, then there could be a compensation for your betrayal. Reports suggest that two planets supposedly bigger than earth could be orbiting somewhere at the icy far edge of our solar system, farther than Pluto.
A team consisting of astronomers from Spain and Britain concluded this after they observed the ETNOs(extreme trans-Neptunian objects). They made observations of more than 10 space rocks.
The team could not however tell us the exact number of planets that could be in hiding around that zone, however they said they should be a minimum of two.
A member of the team, who is a researcher at the University of Madrid, Dr. Carlos de la Fuente Marcos said that, they studied 13 different ETNOs. What they did was to find the mean distance between them and the sun and also the inclination of orbits with reference to our solar system’s plane.
They concluded that these ETNOs should orbit the sun in approximately the same plane with the already existing planets.
The team says their findings are still at an early stage and more research should be done by others to support or dispute their theory. If they turn out right it may be the beginning of a new revolution in astronomy.
No comments:
Post a Comment