
Simulations suggest Planet Nine may have been a rogue - dnetesn
http://phys.org/news/2017-01-simulations-planet-rogue.html
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Insanity
I'm really curious as to the outcome around this. The idea that a new planet
in our solar system is discovered in our lifetime is exciting to me for some
reason. I can't even really explain the feeling.

Even though for most people the discovery will make no difference, they might
not even care about it, which is a shame I think.

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WhoBeI
Yup, and if we do manage to prove it's existence we should keep the name
"Planet 9".

And pretty please let the math on the star collision in 2022 be correct. I
really want to see that.

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Roboprog
Formerly known as Planet X, before the Pluto demotion kerfuffle.

But Plan 9, er Planet, is good, too.

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pavel_lishin
> _They presented evidence suggesting that if Planet Nine is out there, it is
> likely a rogue._

But the evidence seems kind of sketchy. In their simulations, a rogue was only
captured by the Sun 40% of the time. Thats' better than 4%, but still not
great. (Or is that actually a really good result? I don't know.)

I wonder how long it would be before we could reasonably send a probe to
explore a potential rogue. New Horizons managed a fly-by; how plausible would
entering orbit around something that far away be with a reasonable time to get
there?

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mabbo
> I wonder how long it would be before we could reasonably send a probe to
> explore a potential rogue.

New Horizons took around a decade to reach Pluto, which is about 50 AU from
the sun.

The nearest distance Planet 9 could be is approximately 200 AU. Right now,
waiting seems to best bet before sending anything, so that we can hopefully
find ways to send probes faster and meanwhile try to better identify its
location.

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pavel_lishin
Oh sure, I'm not suggesting sending probes just to take a look around. But if
we do positively identify another planet and its location, sending a probe
there would be fascinating. If we could actually land it and do some materials
science on a rogue planet, it would basically double our understanding of
planetary formation.

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willglynn
The delta-V requirements for landing on an outer solar system body are…
intense. New Horizons flew past Pluto at 14 km/s; in order to land, that
relative speed would need to become zero. This concept likely requires new
propulsion technology.

Agreed on being fascinating, though.

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T-hawk
We've already landed on an outer solar system body, Saturn's moon Titan.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huygens_(spacecraft)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huygens_\(spacecraft\))

Titan does have the advantage of a thick atmosphere to allow descent by
parachute, and a large parent body to capture the spacecraft into orbit.

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kareldonk
The Sumerians already knew it existed, and much more:
[https://blog.kareldonk.com/planet-x-nibiru-an-analysis-of-
ak...](https://blog.kareldonk.com/planet-x-nibiru-an-analysis-of-akkadian-
seal-va243/)

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dogma1138
Ancient aliens... yeah mmkay...

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Phithagoras
Abstract at
[http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AAS...22942405V](http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AAS...22942405V)

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jessriedel
Actually, Phys.org is one of the few commendable popular science sites that
quotes the abstract at the end of the article.

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hashkb
It's the Second Foundation. Duh.

