High School Is the existence of Planet 9 supported by Modified Newtonian Dynamics?

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on the hypothesis of Planet 9's existence and its implications, particularly in relation to Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND). Researchers, including Alexander J. Mustill and Sean N. Raymond, propose that Planet 9 may be captured from the Sun's birth cluster, requiring specific conditions such as distant encounters and the presence of wide-orbit planets. The conversation also touches on the potential for MOND to explain observed anomalies in the solar system without necessitating the existence of Planet 9, as indicated by recent studies. The debate highlights the need for further exploration of the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud to uncover the true nature of these celestial phenomena.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of N-body simulations in astrophysics
  • Familiarity with the concept of Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs)
  • Knowledge of Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND)
  • Awareness of the historical context of planetary classification, including Pluto's reclassification
NEXT STEPS
  • Research the implications of N-body simulations for planetary capture scenarios
  • Explore the latest findings on Trans-Neptunian Objects and their orbital distributions
  • Investigate the principles and predictions of Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND)
  • Study the historical discoveries of Neptune and their relevance to current planetary hypotheses
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Astronomers, astrophysicists, and space enthusiasts interested in planetary formation theories, the dynamics of the outer solar system, and the ongoing search for Planet 9.

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Why do we suspect a planet 9 and what are the implications if there is a planet 9?

arXiv:1603.07247 [pdf, other]
Is there an exoplanet in the Solar System?
Alexander J. Mustill, Sean N. Raymond, Melvyn B. Davies
Comments: 5 pages + appendix. Submitted to MNRAS Letters
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)

We investigate the prospects for the capture of the proposed Planet 9 from other stars in the Sun's birth cluster. Any capture scenario must satisfy three conditions: the encounter must be more distant than ~150 au to avoid perturbing the Kuiper belt; the other star must have a wide-orbit planet (a>~100au); the planet must be captured onto an appropriate orbit to sculpt the orbital distribution of wide-orbit Solar System bodies. Here we use N-body simulations to show that these criteria may be simultaneously satisfied. In a few percent of slow close encounters in a cluster, bodies are captured onto heliocentric, Planet 9-like orbits. During the ~100 Myr cluster phase, many stars are likely to host planets on highly-eccentric orbits with apastron distances beyond 100 au if Neptune-sized planets are common and susceptible to planet--planet scattering. While the existence of Planet 9 remains unproven, we consider capture from one of the Sun's young brethren a plausible route to explain such an object's orbit. Capture appears to predict a large population of Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) whose orbits are aligned with the captured planet, and we propose that different formation mechanisms will be distinguishable based on their imprint on the distribution of TNOs.
 
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Planet 9 is known to be a dwarf planet, it is the largest known planet in the kuiper belt. When discovered in 1930, it was considered the 9th planet, this change in 2006 with the adoption of a formal definition of planet . Well the region beyond Neptune is still greatly unexplored, because it appears to consists mainly of rock and ice, this implies that the implications of the 9th planet are not yet found till the region beyond Neptune is thoroughly explored
 
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wolram said:
Why do we suspect a planet 9 and what are the implications if there is a planet 9?
Thanks for the link :smile:, You have no idea how handy that is going to be for me. I'm currently in a discussion on another site about this very subject.
 
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Likes Rohe your Boat
Dear Kyx.

Another mystery is Piet Hut and Rich Muller's Nemesis, a supposed companion of our sun, never seen but that could originate periodic mass extintions in Earth every 26 million years. Could it be a black hole? It doesn't seem probable, but always are those who love amazing hypothesis, isn't that so?
 
Tollendal said:
Could it be a black hole? It doesn't seem probable, but always are those who love amazing hypothesis, isn't that so?

The evidence for a black hole is on par with evidence that it's the actual Greek goddess Nemesis.
 
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The motions of easily observable objects in the solar system don't add up to a perfect complete model for the solar system.
There definitely is stuff out there which is not accounted for as yet.
There are many possibilities, but the one I like the most is that there could be a number of large objects, (but not black hole large), in the Oort cloud.
 
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Pluto was demoted so that astronomers could talk about the existence of "planet 9" at the same time as ridiculing those talking about the existence of planet X.
 
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No, Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet because we now know there are many other similar bodies beyond Neptune in approximately similar orbits, so if Pluto remained as a planet then all those objects would have to be defined as planets too.
The largest asteroid, Ceres, was upgraded to 'minor planet' status at the same time.
 
  • #10
@wolram @rootone
Well, some astrophysicists in Bern think a model of planet 9 would be useful in developing a search. And to explain why it is likely that we have not yet used tools that would be likely to succeed. If you remember, this is kind of like the story of the discovery of Neptune.
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_of_Neptune :
The planet Neptune was mathematically predicted before it was directly observed. With a prediction by Urbain Le Verrier, telescopic observations confirming the existence of a major planet were made on the night of September 23–24, 1846

E. Linder/C. Mordasini: «Evolution and Magnitudes of Candidate Planet Nine» http://www.aanda.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201628350
http://www.unibe.ch/news/media_news/media_relations_e/media_releases/2016_e/media_releases_2016/planet_9_takes_shape/index_eng.html

Someone who is competent in the field (not me) could comment. @Chronos
 
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  • #11
It's certainly interesting to think there is a full-fledged planet - not an asteroid, dwarf or minor planet - yet to be discovered. It would be a tremendous discovery and I am happy to know someone is looking into it. However, it's hypothetical at this point, as there is not enough evidence for it to be theory.
 
  • #12
rootone said:
No, Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet because we now know there are many other similar bodies beyond Neptune in approximately similar orbits, so if Pluto remained as a planet then all those objects would have to be defined as planets too.
The largest asteroid, Ceres, was upgraded to 'minor planet' status at the same time.
And Pluto is not the first body to be reclassified "downwards". At one point, It, along with Pallas, Juno and Vesta were all listed as planets and were later demoted.
"Minor planet" was the term in use before 2006 and Ceres was considered one, as were the other asteroids. After 2006 it was reclassified to 'Dwarf planet' along with Eris (which was, for a short time considered a possible 10th planet). Later, Hamea and Makemake were added to the role of Dwarf planets, bringing the list up to 5.
 
  • #13
rootone said:
The motions of easily observable objects in the solar system don't add up to a perfect complete model for the solar system.
There definitely is stuff out there which is not accounted for as yet.
There are many possibilities, but the one I like the most is that there could be a number of large objects, (but not black hole large), in the Oort cloud.
The WISE survey has put upper limits on those objects however: There are no Neptune-sized objects closer than 700 AU, and no Jupiter sized objects out to a light year (63,000 AU.)
 
  • #14
Tollendal said:
Dear Kyx.

Another mystery is Piet Hut and Rich Muller's Nemesis, a supposed companion of our sun, never seen but that could originate periodic mass extintions in Earth every 26 million years. Could it be a black hole? It doesn't seem probable, but always are those who love amazing hypothesis, isn't that so?

I'm sure I remember Stephen Hawking saying in 'A Brief History of Time' that it is possible that a black hole exists beyond the orbit of Pluto. I would like that to be the case :smile:
 
  • #15
There's another explanation for these anomalies given in https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.00576 using MOND and no planet nine.

The authors make some nicely falsifiable predictions too for it being a MOND effect.
 
  • #17
https://scitechdaily.com/modified-n...h-planet-hunt-revealing-a-new-law-of-gravity/
Brown realized MOND’s predictions might be at odds with the observations that had motivated the search for a ninth planet. “We wanted to see if the data that support the Planet Nine hypothesis would effectively rule out MOND,” she said.

Instead, Mathur and Brown found MOND predicts precisely clustering that astronomers have observed. Over millions of years, they argue, the orbits of some objects in the outer solar system would be dragged into alignment with the galaxy’s own gravitational field.
 

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