New Planet Found in Our Solar System? Could it be the elusive Nibiru?

[Morgus]

New Planet Found in Our Solar System?
Odd orbits of remote objects hint at unseen world, new calculations suggest.
Richard A. Lovett in Timberline Lodge, Oregon
for National Geographic News
Published May 11, 2012

An as yet undiscovered planet might be orbiting at the dark fringes of the solar system, according to new research.

Too far out to be easily spotted by telescopes, the potential unseen planet appears to be making its presence felt by disturbing the orbits of so-called Kuiper belt objects, said Rodney Gomes, an astronomer at the National Observatory of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro.

Kuiper belt objects are small icy bodiesâ€"including some dwarf planetsâ€"that lie beyond the orbit of Neptune.

Once considered the ninth planet in our system, the dwarf planet Pluto, for example, is one of the largest Kuiper belt objects, at about 1,400 miles (2,300 kilometers) wide. Dozens of the other objects are hundreds of miles across, and more are being discovered every year.

(See "Three New 'Plutos'? Possible Dwarf Planets Found.")

What's intriguing, Gomes said, is that, according to his new calculations, about a half dozen Kuiper belt objectsâ€"including the remote body known as Sednaâ€"are in strange orbits compared to where they should be, based on existing solar system models. (Related: "Pluto Neighbor Gets Downsized.")

The objects' unexpected orbits have a few possible explanations, said Gomes, who presented his findings Tuesday at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Timberline Lodge, Oregon.

"But I think the easiest one is a planetary-mass solar companion"â€"a planet that orbits very far out from the sun but that's massive enough to be having gravitational effects on Kuiper belt objects.

Mystery Planet a Captured Rogue?

For the new work, Gomes analyzed the orbits of 92 Kuiper belt objects, then compared his results to computer models of how the bodies should be distributed, with and without an additional planet.

If there's no distant world, Gomes concludes, the models don't produce the highly elongated orbits we see for six of the objects.

How big exactly the planetary body might be isn't clear, but there are a lot of possibilities, Gomes added.

Based on his calculations, Gomes thinks a Neptune-size world, about four times bigger than Earth, orbiting 140 billion miles (225 billion kilometers) away from the sunâ€"about 1,500 times farther than Earthâ€"would do the trick.

But so would a Mars-size objectâ€"roughly half Earth's sizeâ€"in a highly elongated orbit that would occasionally bring the body sweeping to within 5 billion miles (8 billion kilometers) of the sun.

Gomes speculates that the mystery object could be a rogue planet that was kicked out of its own star system and later captured by the sun's gravity. (See "'Nomad' Planets More Common Than Thought, May Orbit Black Holes.")

Or the putative planet could have formed closer to our sun, only to be cast outward by gravitational encounters with other planets.

However, actually finding such a world would be a challenge.

To begin with, the planet might be pretty dim. Also, Gomes's simulations don't give astronomers any clue as to where to point their telescopesâ€""it can be anywhere," he said.

No Smoking Gun

Other astronomers are intrigued but say they'll want a lot more proof before they're willing to agree that the solar systemâ€"againâ€"has nine planets. (Also see "Record Nine-Planet Star System Discovered?")

"Obviously, finding another planet in the solar system is a big deal," said Rory Barnes, an astronomer at the University of Washington. But, he added, "I don't think he really has any evidence that suggests it is out there."

Instead, he added, Gomes "has laid out a way to determine how such a planet could sculpt parts of our solar system. So while, yes, the evidence doesn't exist yet, I thought the bigger point was that he showed us that there are ways to find that evidence."

Douglas Hamilton, an astronomer from the University of Maryland, agrees that the new findings are far from definitive.

"What he showed in his probability arguments is that it's slightly more likely. He doesn't have a smoking gun yet."

And Hal Levison, an astronomer at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, says he isn't sure what to make of Gomes's finding.

"It seems surprising to me that a [solar] companion as small as Neptune could have the effect he sees," Levison said.

But "I know Rodney, and I'm sure he did the calculations right."

[ziznak]

OMG... all of that fits in with Sitchin's Nibiru bro!!! neptune sized... distubing kyper belt orbits (and possibly tossing stuff our way).  This is VERY interesting.

[Zircon]

Hey, the price of gold is up so are they coming to cash some of what they took out? By the time it gets here it might be at $5,000/ounce. Either that or they're trying to get here fast so as to get it while it is still "cheap". That and some more slaves.

[preston]

Hey, the price of gold is up so are they coming to cash some of what they took out? By the time it gets here it might be at $5,000/ounce. Either that or they're trying to get here fast so as to get it while it is still "cheap". That and some more slaves.

I think that by the time 3500 years have passed for us.Only 25 years have passed for them.It could be that they are coming back to stock up on supplies.just in time to take advantage on E-foods new single packs.

[ziznak]

Wouldn't it be great if WE the people of earth could take the initiative and STEAL back our gold from Nibiru next pass??  Maybe if given enough time we could, after detecting the approach, throw something large at the planet like ... I don't know.. .the moon?  Of course the existence of such a planet in such an orbit has been defunct by many a physicist already...  It would have A) been flung totally out of the solar system due to it's slingshot motion or B) become a permanent member of the solar system with a regular orbit... only clockwise i guess.  As interesting as Nibiru and the Annunaki exploits are to me I'm still failing to really take them seriously.

[Zircon]

Wouldn't it be great if WE the people of earth could take the initiative and STEAL back our gold from Nibiru next pass??  Maybe if given enough time we could, after detecting the approach, throw something large at the planet like ... I don't know.. .the moon?  Of course the existence of such a planet in such an orbit has been defunct by many a physicist already...  It would have A) been flung totally out of the solar system due to it's slingshot motion or B) become a permanent member of the solar system with a regular orbit... only clockwise i guess.  As interesting as Nibiru and the Annunaki exploits are to me I'm still failing to really take them seriously.

I also think Nibiru is nonsense. Not sure where the Annunaki came from but a planet orbiting our sun even at the distances they claim it does would have been easily confirmed by now. It hasn't so believeing in it is a bunch of crap.

[Juan]

Pulling up an old thread - scientists have found a free floating planet out there - not connected to any star.  Planet X?
http://mashable.com/2013/10/11/lonely-alien-planet-discovered/

[ziznak]

One of the kids showed me this the other day!  Isn't it awesome that they thought/had no proof that exoplanets exist... then they found em.  Now, after they've theorized that rogue planets could exist... now they found one!!!

[DanTSX]

Torsion physics must be able to explain this.  And NASA is hiding it

[onan]

Torsion physics must be able to explain this.  And NASA is hiding it

I bet that new planet came from the moon base with the glass dome.

[area51drone]

I don't necessarily believe it, but wouldn't it be a slap in the face to Michael Heiser?   That I might enjoy.

[Juan]

I bet that new planet came from the moon base with the glass dome.

The planet escaping is probably what shattered the glass dome.