Planet IX

[AnasAbdin]

If you are interested, a new study shows evidence that a Neptune-sized planet lurks beyond Pluto in a distant orbit that completes a spin around the sun every 15,000 years.

This is a link to the journal: EVIDENCE FOR A DISTANT GIANT PLANET IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM
It is also available as a pdf

This image shows how far the orbit of Planet IX and the current location of Voyager 1

Here's the orbit of Planet IX



An explanatory video:

[embed=640,390]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42GeoCVaZQg[/embed]

[Gribbler]

Nibiru confirmed. Annunaki invasion imminent

Do we know when it will get close enough so I can spot it with the telescope?

[Cassiebsg]

So.... is it Planet X or Planet IX? I'm confused... or was that caused by the demotion of Pluto?

Anyway, why not? Maybe the 15.000 years is just around the corner, that they'll be able to see it... or we can wait another 5 to 10 thousand years before it's close enough to be see...
Maybe that's where the civilization that built the ancient world come from?

EDIT: Oh, wait! When is it the new x-files is coming out?

[Snarky]

Yeah, I read about this in The Economist. Quite interesting, though I won't count my planets before they hatch, so to speak.

It's Planet 9 because Pluto isn't counted any more, Planet X because it's as yet unknown. We don't have to wait to observe it: they have a telescope searching the sky in the region they calculate it would be, though they say it might take five years to find it or conclusively disprove its existence. (As that picture shows, it would be immensely far away â€" many times further out than Pluto â€" which is why it wouldn't have been observed before.)

Truly Planet 9 in Outer Space, in other words!

[Cassiebsg]

Truly Planet 9 in Outer Space, in other words!

Cool! Let's start making the game now, by the time they find it, we "ride the wave" and release the game... if they don't find it, we'll still end up with another cool game to play.

EDIT: Uhm... actually this gives me some ideas for my own game... Though, not sure I want to put the Galactica "this close" to Earth at the moment...

[AnasAbdin]

Snarky answered quicker Everything is correct

It's so weird how such a huge planet might be lurking in the solar system. This planet is almost 9000 times the size of Pluto. Astronomers are tracking the orbit trying to observe it. I wonder what would it be named!

I still believe there might be more planets in our backyard that we haven't discovered yet. Not only in the outskirts of the solar system, but even between the orbit of Mercury and the sun.

[Kumpel]

I think a pretty name could be Aeolus (God of winds). Cause this planet has been as visible as the wind and only could be traced by its influence on other planets

This is definitely fantastic stuff for a nice near future sci fi game or even for an Indy adventure because of the great combination of mythology, hard science and science fiction.

[AnasAbdin]

I don't think any name will be proposed anytime soon until the planet is observed. Many gods will be fighting for this one personally I hope they don't name it after a god. I mean this has to stop at some point or until all gods names are taken.

I say we gather up as a true community and name it AGS

[Snarky]

They could always branch out from Roman mythology. How about Shakti, or Czernobog, or Itzamna?

[Darth Mandarb]

They could always branch out from Roman mythology. How about Shakti, or Czernobog, or Itzamna?

My vote is for Hoth.

[RickJ]

I heard that it's existence is blamed on global warming so maybe it should be called Algorbaran.  And if Annunaki show up in Sumeria ... imagine the fun they'll have  

[Mandle]

They could always branch out from Roman mythology. How about Shakti, or Czernobog, or Itzamna?

My vote is for Hoth.

+1

[Stromvin]

well, as we all know
mighty Thor still needs a planet. So this is an obvious choice

As a side note: gribbler mentioned nibiru, and there even was an adventure game called that way. Dunno if anyone has played it, i did but never finished. Had interesting atmosphere at least.

[Baron]

So help me out with the physics end of this.  A huge proportion of the universe is supposed to be dark matter, which is inferred from the amount of stuff required to account for the amount of gravity holding the universe together.  But, if there are huge planets that we can't see floating around in the "emptiness" between stars, couldn't dark matter just be matter-in-the-dark?

[AnasAbdin]

couldn't dark matter just be matter-in-the-dark? :-

Dark matter bends the light passing near it due to its gravity. But it does let light go through it 

[Ghost]

Undetected for that long? Guys, that's no planet, that's a ninja! Imagine the size of its throwing stars!

[Baron]

I thought it was dark because it has no stars.

[Gurok]

Maybe it has black stars.

[Mandle]

I believe that the discovery of dark matter stems from a generous estimate of how much matter a galaxy should contain based on what we have been able to observe so far. Now, if this estimate was off by something like 10% that would be perfectly natural as it is an inprecise number. But it turns out that the estimate can only account for something like 5% of the amount of matter necessary to hold a galaxy together with its gravity.

Which means that around 95% of matter is something we cannot observe. It is in fact, all around us, not just out there somewhere lost in space. We just cannot interact with it in any way. And the weirdest and creepiest part for me at least is that dark matter does not interact with itself even, it passes straight through itself with no reaction whatsoever.

As Anas Abdin mentioned: we know it is real because of the way it bends light travelling through/close to large concentrations of dark matter in the same way that massive objects like black holes bend light: Gravity lensing.

Using this technique scientists have been able to create a map of all the dark matter within our visible universe, and it turns out that it concentrates itself around large clumps of normal matter, but also forms a kind of web which joins all the known galaxies to each other.

Maybe it's the ghost realm? It sure is creepy that's for sure...

[Ghost]

Maybe it's the ghost realm? It sure is creepy that's for sure...

On the contrary! We have unicorns and rainbows here! And we float.
We all... float!

[Ryan Timothy B]

Which means that around 95% of matter is something we cannot observe. It is in fact, all around us, not just out there somewhere lost in space.

Midi-chlorians

[Mandle]

Maybe it's the ghost realm? It sure is creepy that's for sure...

On the contrary! We have unicorns and rainbows here! And we float.
We all... float!

Someone give that man a balloon

[Ghost]

Someone give that man a balloon

[AnasAbdin]

Found a nice video explaining orbits mechanics 

[embed=640,390]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJiAkBxuqfs[/embed]