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[gutshot]

Someone school me, pl0x. How is it that planets or objects go unnoticed for a long time yet we can find things that are farther than these objects. Are they too small to be seen and need different equipment?

Things have to emit lightwaves to be detected. Distant stars and galaxies can be detected because they are emitting a lot of light that we can collect and analyze. Exoplanets around these stars can also be detected because they are partially blocking out the light the stars emit and from that we can determine roughly the size and orbit of these exoplanets.

These planets aren't emitting any light themselves and are so far away and small that the amount of lightwaves they would reflect from the sun are impossible to detect with our current astronomical instruments. Only way currently to know they are there is by detecting changes in the orbits of objects that we know exist, which is what these astronomers have done.

 

[SlipperyMoose]

Size doesn't matter, it's what you do with it that counts....

It does when it comes to being a planet sorry bro

 

[Flo_Evans]

Kinda crazy how much we don't know about space. Feels like everything I learned in school about the solar system was wrong lol.

 

[WillyFive]

Someone school me, pl0x. How is it that planets or objects go unnoticed for a long time yet we can find things that are farther than these objects. Are they too small to be seen and need different equipment?

The same way you can see a house on a mountain that is far away, but you can't see a house that's near to you but happens to be hidden by trees, a hill, and other buildings.

When a planet passes in front of a star far away, it's really obvious to see it because the star changes brightness. But when there's no star to pass in front of, the planet is practically invincible, an unlit rock in a black void.

However, it still has gravity, so it can be found if its gravity interacts with other objects near it, like what is being observed in the OP.

 

[Ziltoidia 9]

There are alot of mini planets way out there with pluto. Thats why it was downgraded from a planet.

 

[quesalupa]

One is The Traveler

Spoiler

from Destiny

.

Hmmmm, can you explain this traveler?

 

[titiklabingapat]

I honestly think it's entirely possible that there are one or two more planets beyond the "known" edge of our solar system. I really doubt it would be a large planet though, most likely it would be a small, dark, far away planet. Something with little gravitational influence, something very hard to detect or spot, and certainly something not very reflective. It would have a huge orbital path, so from our perspective it would be a very slow moving planet simply due to it's distance from our sun.

Now, what would be INTERESTING is if there were two tidally locked little planets out there, circling each other as they slowly orbit our sun, exerting gravitational forces on each other. They would be far too far away to get any energy from our sun to do anything worthwhile, but if they had a lot of gravitational forces working on each other, possibly creating seismic activity or even keeping water in a liquid state, well then they would become FAR more interesting as exploration targets.


Either way, with the state of our space exploration today, I doubt we'll ever truly know in our lifetimes.

Pluto and Charon are already like that,granted these are mini-planets, but still.They are orbiting each other, with their center of gravity outside of Pluto.

 

[gutshot]

How crazy would it be if Voyager got pulled into the orbit of one of these distant planets? The chances of it happening are impossibly small, but it's crazy to think about.

 

[Khaos_Knight]

On a side note, does anyone else think it's weird that we call our moon "Moon." We call our planet Earth, our nearest star The Sun, and yet we call our moon "Moon."

Blame the boring scientists who name shit.

I like to pretend they're called Sol, Terra and Luna considering how everything else in our system is named after roman gods.

 

[WillyFive]

How crazy would it be if Voyager got pulled into the orbit of one of these distant planets? The chances of it happening are impossibly small, but it's crazy to think about.

It would be amusing, we'd think it would be on its way to the center of the galaxy and yet it's just doing donuts around a rock somewhere.

Blame the boring scientists who name shit.

I like to pretend they're called Sol, Terra and Luna considering how everything else in our system is named after roman gods.

Scientists didn't name them, normal people did long, long before civilization existed. That's why in most languages the name of the Earth means "dirt".

 

[Khaos_Knight]

Scientists didn't name them, normal people did long, long before civilization existed. That's why in most languages the name of the Earth means "dirt".

My mistake then.

 

[Ziltoidia 9]

For instance:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eris_(dwarf_planet)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makemake_(dwarf_planet)
Haumea (dwarf planet)

 

[Fenderputty]

I mean the concept of giant "dark" object moving through space has always been easy to grasp yet still kinda creepy. Thinking we have them in our Orbit is even creepier for some reason.

 

[marrec]

For instance:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eris_(dwarf_planet)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makemake_(dwarf_planet)
Haumea (dwarf planet)

For reference, in this thread we're discussing the scientific possibility of a large trans neptunian rocky planet, not a small drawf-planet.

 

[a secret-boss]

Viral Marketing for Death Star 2

 

[Trojita]

That's interesting.

 

[Ziltoidia 9]

For reference, in this thread we're discussing the scientific possibility of a large trans neptunian rocky planet, not a small drawf-planet.

That would be even better to find

 

[elrechazado]

The Oort Cloud is so cool

 

[Pop-O-Matic]

Where's Lars Von Trier when you need him...

Currently involved with another project right now.

 

[FTF]

"from planet-hunter Mike Brown"

This sounds like a cool job, I'd like to do this.

 

[Simon Belmont]

"from planet-hunter Mike Brown"

This sounds like a cool job, I'd like to do this.

It's sounds cool but it's probably a lot of comparing pictures of the same star and trying to decide if it's wobbling.

 

[Nivash]

"from planet-hunter Mike Brown"

This sounds like a cool job, I'd like to do this.

"Gas bags. Dwarfs. Hotheads. Ice queens. He's seen them all. He's caught them all. When a planet goes rogue, there's only one man who can bring it back into orbit: his name is Mike Brown. Planet Hunter."

Yep. I'd watch that.

 

[AbortedWalrusFetus]

I once heard a theory that an astronomer thought that Sol was a binary star system and there was a brown dwarf star nearby. I wonder if this finding lends any credence to that theory, cause it sounded sort of out there when I heard it, even if brown dwarf stars are very hard to detect.

 

[TimeEffect]

I mean the concept of giant "dark" object moving through space has always been easy to grasp yet still kinda creepy. Thinking we have them in our Orbit is even creepier for some reason.

On one hand, you wonder why we haven't been hit in so long, and on the other, you can't fathom the size of space.

A silent, invisible, giant object, soaring in empty space is definitely creepy. I wonder how far out scientists have mapped our solar system, and if there are any missed areas where giant asteroids are on a collision course to Earth.

It would be pretty interesting if we knew of an asteroid heading to earth in less than 100 years, and how we would react to it.

 

[WillyFive]

I once heard a theory that an astronomer thought that Sol was a binary star system and there was a brown dwarf star nearby. I wonder if this finding lends any credence to that theory, cause it sounded sort of out there when I heard it, even if brown dwarf stars are very hard to detect.

They'd still have gravity, and if we were in a binary star system, then we would be orbiting around the center of gravity of both objects (somewhere inbetween both stars); but it's obvious we are orbiting the Sun.

 

[marrec]

On one hand, you wonder why we haven't been hit in so long, and on the other, you can't fathom the size of space.

A silent, invisible, giant object, soaring in empty space is definitely creepy. I wonder how far out scientists have mapped our solar system, and if there are any missed areas where giant asteroids are on a collision course to Earth.

It would be pretty interesting if we knew of an asteroid heading to earth in less than 100 years, and how we would react to it.

If you don't already know, don't look into it, it'll just make you nervous. :lol

 

[Dead Prince]

the moon and sun are not planets

isaac begs to differ on the planet moon.

 

[PhantomHound]

the moon and sun are not planets

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcP0beJ95oY

Is the moon a star?

 

[injurai]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcP0beJ95oY

Is the moon a star?

You got it!

What is it you want, PhantomHound? What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down.

 

[John Kowalski]

Who keeps putting new planets there??

 

[Zambatoh]

Where's Lars Von Trier when you need him...

Oh snap! Did someone remake Queen Millenia?

 

[Bold One]

Oh snap! Did someone remake Queen Millenia?

Melancholia

 

[Zambatoh]

Melancholia

I'll check it out. Thanks.

 

[AbortedWalrusFetus]

They also looked at the dwarf planet discovered last year called 2012 VP113 in the Oort cloud (its closest approach to the Sun is about 80 astronomical units) and how some researchers say it appears its orbit might be influenced by the possible presence of a dark and icy super-Earth, up to ten times larger than our planet.

This is why science reporting is bad. What does "larger" mean here? Mass? Volume?

 

[v1lla21]

Thanks for the replies ^_^ appreciate it.

 

[xbhaskarx]

"Could there be another Pluto-like object"

So not a planet?

 

[gutshot]

I once heard a theory that an astronomer thought that Sol was a binary star system and there was a brown dwarf star nearby. I wonder if this finding lends any credence to that theory, cause it sounded sort of out there when I heard it, even if brown dwarf stars are very hard to detect.

The brown dwarf theory was debunked with the launch of WISE.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemesis_(hypothetical_star)

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

nice try, but nothing will ever make up for them taking pluto. nothing.

Pluto isn't a planet.

 

[PaperFlame]

The aliens are closer than we think.

 

[kiguel182]

Isn't the theory that a planet is influencing the orbit of Neptune and Pluto pretty old?

Is this a new version of it that thinks there are two instead of one?

 

[kess]

I once heard a theory that an astronomer thought that Sol was a binary star system and there was a brown dwarf star nearby. I wonder if this finding lends any credence to that theory, cause it sounded sort of out there when I heard it, even if brown dwarf stars are very hard to detect.

BIG BLACK NEMESIS PARTHENOGENESIS NO ONE MOVE A MUSCLE AS THE DEAD COME HOME

 

[Ophelion]

Hmmmm, can you explain this traveler?

Haha, was going to say, "Maybe astronomers can explain what the fuck the Traveler even is."

 

[FunkyPajamas]

Shepard.

Wrex.

 

[M3d10n]

Someone school me, pl0x. How is it that planets or objects go unnoticed for a long time yet we can find things that are farther than these objects. Are they too small to be seen and need different equipment?

1) Planets usually don't emit light on their own.
2) Planets too far from their stars hardly reflect light.
3) After a certain distance, everything looks way too small anyway.
4) AFAIK the planets we found outside the solar system weren't directly observed, we can only infer their presence due to their visible interference on their star.

Basically, we don't have many ways to detect small non-light emitting objects that are wandering through space too far away from a star.

 

[RedShift]

I'm not following. We aren't in a binary system. I'm saying a planetoid that large still being in a elliptical orbit with our sun despite being beyond the Oort cloud blows my mind.

I would think being that massive it would just drift being so far out since the gravitational pull from the sun would be so small compared to the size of the objects own gravity.

Maybe I'm just easily impressed I suppose.

I don't think that's how gravity fields work, A huge planet can orbit the sun at that distance just as easily as a tiny rock. An objects own mass/gravity has no effect on it's movement unless it's affecting other objects, and no planet that far out is having that much of an effect on the sun.

I think the reason you wouldn't expect to see large planets that far out is to do with how the solar system formed from a disc.

 

[ringlord]

10-to-1 that one of them is Ghroth.

 

[DiscoJer]

Isn't the theory that a planet is influencing the orbit of Neptune and Pluto pretty old?

Is this a new version of it that thinks there are two instead of one?

Yeah, for a long, long time, they thought there was a Planet X because of the orbits of Neptune and Uranus were off (which is how Pluto was found, people looking for another planet), but then it turns out it was because our observations of Neptune and Uranus were off instead.

In this case, it's sort of the same thing, only with the orbits of various dwarf planets. But we don't know much about those dwarf planets, so it's kind of a big jump...

 

[MattKeil]

On a side note, does anyone else think it's weird that we call our moon "Moon." We call our planet Earth, our nearest star The Sun, and yet we call our moon "Moon."

Goddammit, Moon Moon...

 

[Log4Girlz]

Maybe I should write a book about it.

There's no proof you haven't already.

 

[Regret Upon Approval]

How they managed to find a super-Earth thousands of lightyears away, but skip past these two guys in the backyard without noticing, is beyond me.

The superearths tend to be found by checking for anomalies when observing a star IIRC.
These supposed planets are far away from the sun and so there are little ways to actually spot them. Cold and distant from any radiation emitting body.