New Paper Presents Updated Planet 9 Calculations
A new paper from Brown and Batygin reevaulates the data on Kuiper Belt Object orbits and finds that Planet 9 is still likely out there to be found.
When it comes to scientists having a sense of humor, Caltech astrophysicist Mike Brown is one of the best, in my opinion. He is, after all, part of the team that discovered the dwarf planet Eris, so named for the goddess of strife and discord in part because of the controversy over what exactly defined a planet. That controversy led the International Astronomical Union to revise their planetary definition in 2006 and demoted Pluto to a dwarf planet as well. Dr. Brown then began using the Twitter handle plutokiller once the social media service was up and running, and his book is titled How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming.
Of course, debates about the status of Pluto still rage on the internet and among astronomers and planetary scientists. But that’s not the point of this particular story.
Just when you think Mike Brown couldn’t mess with our solar system any more than he already has, he and fellow astrophysicist Konstantin Batygin proposed back in 2016 that there might be a huge, undiscovered planet out in our solar system. The so-called Planet 9 (sorry, Pluto)…
