Largest Planet Suggested

Essentially from the origination of comets we can discern a statistical anomaly that supports the plausibility of a distant large gas planet capable of been the distant comet engine.  If true and valid, it should also give us a particular sector of the sky to search since the orbit will be very long and slow.  For that reason I am still skeptical.  It should be obvious from these tentative statistics.

Alternatively we are dealing with hugely elongigated orbit, yet that may not give us this signature.  Disturbances in the Oort cloud could well have taken place millennia ago and we are seeing late arrivals when the effects are damped down.

Such a planet on an elliptical orbit that is nearly circular would also be sweeping the Oort cloud clean inside its orbit and that is certainly not happening.  Thus a rare pass from a planet on a long orbit that arrives every few millennia seems far more likely.  Of course the focal point for comets would also be drifting and be hard to back track not knowing the planet’s orbit.

And we have the additional complication that the sun orbits through the Sirius cluster every 180,000 years or so.

At the end of the day this is real confirmation that all these conjectures are not a waste of time.  Something is really out there that we do not know yet.

Largest planet in the solar system could be about to be discovered - and it's up to four times the size of Jupiter

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Last updated at 9:52 AM on 14th February 2011

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1356748/Search-Tyche-believed-largest-planet-solar-system.html

Scientists believe they may have found a new planet in the far reaches of the solar system, up to four times the mass of Jupiter.

Its orbit would be thousands of times further from the Sun than the Earth's - which could explain why it has so far remained undiscovered.

Data which could prove the existence of Tyche, a gas giant in the outer Oort Cloud, is set to be released later this year - although some believe proof has already been garnered by Nasa with its pace telescope, Wise, and is waiting to be pored over.

A new world? Astronomers believe a huge gas giant may be within the remote Oort Cloud region

Prof Daniel Whitmire from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette believes the data may prove Tyche's existence within two years.

He told the Independent: 'If it does, [fellow astrophysicist Prof John Matese] and I will be doing cartwheels. And that's not easy at our age.'

He added he believes it will mainly be made of hydrogen and helium, with an atmosphere like Jupiter's, with spots and rings and clouds, adding: 'You'd also expect it to have moons. All the outer planets have them.'

He believes the planet is so huge, it will have a raised temperature left from its formation that will make it far higher than others, such as Pluto, at -73C, as 'it takes an object this size a long time to cool off'.

Isolated: The Oort Cloud, where Tyche is believed to be, is a sphere with a radius of one light year

He and Prof Matese first suggested Tyche existed because of the angle comets were arriving, with a fifth of the expected number since 1898 entering higher than expected.

However, Tyche - if it exists - should also dislodge comets closer to home, from the  inner Oort Cloud, but they have not been seen.

If confirmed, the status and name of the new planet - which would become the ninth and potentially the largest - would then have to be agreed by the International Astronomical Union. 

Currently named Tyche, from the Greek goddess that governed the destiny of a city, its name may have to change, as it originated from a theory which has now been largely abandoned.

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Solar System’s “Planet X” Tyche

Researchers propose new planet "Tyche" on distant fringe of solar system. Inner planets on this diagram are too close to the Sun to see. (Credit: Ben McGee)

Our solar system may have just gotten a lot more interesting. Researchers studying the orbits of comets at the University of Louisiana have found a problem.  -They’ve discovered an inconsistency with how comets are spread out compared to what you would expect under ordinary galactic conditions.  In an article recently submitted to the journal Icarus, they propose the existence of another behemoth planet orbiting far beyond Pluto along the outskirts of the Oort Cloud (a huge sphere of proto-comets  that surrounds the solar system) and that this proposed planet, Tyche, is responsible for what they see.

This calls to mind another similar hypothesis based on the apparently cyclical nature of mass extinctions throughout Earth’s history and on geologic evidence from the Moon.  

Called the Nemesis theory, it proposes that our solar system is actually a binary star system, and that the Sun’s twin is a small, dim, red dwarf star named Nemesisorbiting far beyond the Oort cloud.  As the theory goes, Nemesis passes close enough to the Oort cloud to send a deadly rain of comets into the inner solar system every few-score-million years or so.  The name here is completely appropriate, as those familiar with Greek Mythology will recall that Nemesis is the goddess of Retribution.

While the Tyche and Nemesis models are clearly different proposals, the researchers offering the new proposal are aware of the similarities.  According to Greek Mythology, Tyche is Nemesis’s good sister, the goddess of Fortune and Luck.  Say what you will about the penchant of astronomers to lean on mythology

Robert Howe