Astronomers just announced the possible existence of a ninth planet in the solar system earlier this year which possesses a massive orbit beyond Neptune. To date, there are still no direct observations of this Planet 9 but astronomers are now beginning to study the possibilities of the composition of this mysterious, elusive planet.
Astronomers from Caltech revealed that this distant planet was detected due to its gravitational forces that seem to affect some icy objects in the Kuiper belt system near Neptune.
Now, researchers speculate that this alien world is about 3.7 times bigger than Earth, possessing a mass that is ten times more than our home world.
Theoretically, this planet also has a bizarre elliptical orbit that is about 200 to 1,000 times farther from the sun compared to Earth's distance to the sun. Astronomers also believe that Planet 9 is probably a smaller gas giant similar to Uranus or Neptune where initial planetary models reveal an icy core with a thick atmosphere that contains hydrogen and helium, which are also the most commonly found elements in the universe.
When there is enough direct evidence of Planet 9, the world could possibly hold temperatures of negative 375 degrees Fahrenheit which astronomers believe is significantly warmer since it is so far away from the sun. Astronomers also say that it will take 10,000 to 20,000 years for the ninth planet to make a complete orbit around the sun.
According to Esther Linder from the University of Bern, this would also mean that the planet's energy emissions could be more influenced by the cooling of its core, otherwise the temperature would just remain at 10 Kelvin. This planet's intrinsic power is also estimated to be 1000 times bigger that its absorbed solar energy.
These current calculations suggest that this mysterious planet is at its apogee or greatest distance from the sun, making it challenging for astronomers to detect its presence. However, there are clues from different observatories around the world that reveals some bizarre space objects beyond Neptune, like a body that possesses 50 times the mass of Earth that is also lurking in the outskirts of our solar system, which has been detected by the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer.
This new study will be published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.