2023-09-17 06:00:13
If it were an exoplanet, it would be called a super-Earth. But this planet would be located within our Solar System. A duo of Japanese astrophysicists suggests the existence of an Earth-like planet in the Kuiper Belt (sometimes called the Kuiper Belt of Edgeworth-Kuiper, [‘kœj.pər] in…), a discovery which could revolutionize our understanding of the Solar System (The solar system is a planetary system made up of one star, the…).
Image d’illustration – ESO
For a decade, several studies have fueled theories on the existence of a ninth planet at the edge of the solar system. Patryk Sofia Lykawka and Takashi Ito, respectively affiliated with Kindai University and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, propose a different hypothesis (In mathematics , the different one is defined in algebraic theory of…): a planet could be found much closer, in the Kuiper belt.
The Kuiper belt is a circumstellar disk located beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is mainly composed of small frozen objects. The researchers observed that some of these objects had atypical orbits, suggesting the gravitational influence of a larger object.
This image shows the results of a simulation that studies how distant objects in the solar system move. Researchers added a “mystery planet” to the Kuiper Belt to see how it would affect other objects. The symbols of different colors represent the objects studied and their behavior.
Credit: The Astronomical Journal
To support their theory, the scientists conducted computer simulations. The results indicate that the most likely explanation for these atypical orbits is the existence of a planet in the Kuiper Belt. According to simulations, this planet would have a mass of between 1.5 and 3 times that of Earth and would be at a distance of 250 to 500 astronomical units. (AU) of the Sun (The Sun (Sol in Latin, Helios or Ήλιος in Greek) is the star…). For comparison, Neptune is about 30 AU from the Sun.
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