Some physical properties predicted for the putative Planet Nine of the solar system

Tóth, I.

doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201628444

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Potential formation scenarios for such a distant and eccentric planet include scattering with or capture from nearby stars in the Sun's birth cluster (Li & Adams 2016;Mustill et al 2016), in situ accretion , or early scattering interactions with the giant planets . Fortney et al (2016), Toth (2016), and Linder & Mordasini (2016) characterized various potential physical properties, such as the estimated size, the temperature, and the apparent brightness, which are useful when considering its detectability.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Constraints on Planet Nine’s Orbit and Sky Position within a Framework of Mean-motion Resonances

Millholland¹,

Laughlin²

2017

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A number of authors have proposed that the statistically significant orbital alignment of the most distant Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) is evidence of an as-yet undetected planet in the outer solar system, now referred to colloquially as "Planet Nine". Dynamical simulations by Batygin & Brown (2016a) have provided constraints on the range of the planet's possible orbits and sky locations. We extend these investigations by exploring the suggestion of Malhotra et al. (2016) that Planet Nine is in small integer ratio mean-motion resonances (MMRs) with several of the most distant KBOs. We show that the observed KBO semi-major axes present a set of commensurabilities with an unseen planet at ∼ 654 AU (P ∼ 16, 725 yr) that has a greater than 98% chance of stemming from a sequence of MMRs rather than from a random distribution. We describe and implement a Monte-Carlo optimization scheme that drives billion-year dynamical integrations of the outer solar system to pinpoint the orbital properties of perturbers that are capable of maintaining the KBOs' apsidal alignment. This optimization exercise suggests that the unseen planet is most consistently represented with mass, m ∼ 6−12M ⊕ , semi-major axis, a ∼ 654 AU, eccentricity, e ∼ 0.45, inclination, i ∼ 30 • , argument of periastron, ω ∼ 150 • , longitude of ascending node, Ω ∼ 50 • , and mean anomaly, M ∼ 180 • . A range of sky locations relative to this fiducial ephemeris are possible. We find that the region 30 • RA 50 • , −20 • Dec 20 • is promising.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Constraints on Planet Nine’s Orbit and Sky Position within a Framework of Mean-motion Resonances

Millholland¹,

Laughlin²

2017

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“…These arguments launched a flurry of discussions and studies on the origins, location, and implications of a ninth planet. The studies have covered formation and capture scenarios Cowan et al 2016;Li & Adams 2016;Mustill et al 2016), constraints on the location, detectability and physical properties of P9 de la Fuente Marcos & de la Fuente Marcos 2016aFienga et al 2016;Fortney et al 2016;Ginzburg et al 2016;Holman & Payne 2016aLinder & Mordasini 2016;Philippov & Chobanu 2016;Toth 2016;Veras 2016), the dynamical implications of P9 in the solar system (de la Fuente Marcos et al 2016c;Lawler et al 2016), P9 producing inclined TNOs (Batygin & Brown 2016b), resonances and P9 (Beust 2016;Malhotra et al 2016), a dark matter P9 (Sivaram et al 2016), and impacts of P9 on the Sun's obliquity (Bailey et al 2016;Lai 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consequences of a Distant Massive Planet on the Large Semimajor Axis Trans-Neptunian Objects

Shankman

Kavelaars

Lawler

et al. 2017

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We explore the distant giant planet hypothesis by integrating the large-semimajor-axis, large-pericenter transNeptunian objects (TNOs) in the presence of the giant planets and an external perturber whose orbit is consistent with the proposed distant, eccentric, and inclined giant planet, so-called planet 9. We find that TNOs with semimajor axes greater than 250 au experience some longitude of perihelion shepherding, but that a generic outcome of such evolutions is that the TNOs evolve to larger pericenter orbits and commonly get raised to retrograde inclinations. This pericenter and inclination evolution requires a massive disk of TNOs (tens of Å M ) in order to explain the detection of the known sample today. Some of the highly inclined orbits produced by the examined perturbers will be inside of the orbital parameter space probed by prior surveys, implying a missing signature of the ninth-planet scenario. The distant giant planet scenarios explored in this work do not reproduce the observed signal of simultaneous clustering in argument of pericenter, longitude of the ascending node, and longitude of perihelion in the region of the known TNOs.

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“…Despite these spatial constraints, the search for an object as distant as the proposed Planet Nine illustrates the trade-off between sky coverage and limiting magnitude. Brightness estimates (Fortney et al 2016;Toth 2016;Linder & Mordasini 2016) place it at the edge of the detection limit of most large surveys, while a dedicated search with large telescopes is relatively expensive in terms of observing time.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A new approach to distant solar system object detection in large survey data sets

Perdelwitz

Völschow

Müller

2018

A&A

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Context. The recently postulated existence of a giant ninth planet in our solar system has sparked search efforts for distant solar system objects (SSOs) both via new observations and archival data analysis. Due to the likely faintness of the object in the optical and infrared regime, it has so far eluded detection. Aims. We set out to re-analyze data acquired by the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), an all-sky survey well suited for the detection of SSOs.Methods. We present a new approach to SSO detection via parallactic fitting. Using the heliocentric distance as a fit parameter, our code transforms groups of three or more single observation point sources to heliocentric coordinates under the assumption that all data stem from an object. The fact that the orbit of a distant SSO is approximately linear in heliocentric coordinates over long time-scales can be utilized to produce candidates, which can then be confirmed with follow-up observations. Results. We demonstrate the feasibility of the approach by a posteriori detecting the outer SSO Makemake within WISE data. An all-sky search for Planet Nine yielded no detection. Conclusions. While the postulated Planet Nine eluded detection by our algorithm, we tentatively predict that this new approach to moving-object analysis will enable the discovery of new distant SSOs that cannot be discovered by other algorithms. Especially in cases of sparse data observed over long time spans, our approach is unique and robust due to the use of only one fit parameter.

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Some physical properties predicted for the putative Planet Nine of the solar system

Cited by 6 publications

References 24 publications

Constraints on Planet Nine’s Orbit and Sky Position within a Framework of Mean-motion Resonances

Constraints on Planet Nine’s Orbit and Sky Position within a Framework of Mean-motion Resonances

Consequences of a Distant Massive Planet on the Large Semimajor Axis Trans-Neptunian Objects

A new approach to distant solar system object detection in large survey data sets

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