Central Idea
- Two Japanese astronomers have uncovered potential evidence of an “Earth-like planet” within our solar system.
- This mysterious planet is believed to have resided in the Kuiper Belt, a circumstellar disk beyond Neptune’s orbit that consists of outer solar system objects.
- The Kuiper Belt, like the planets, orbits the Sun.
What is the Kuiper Belt?
- The Kuiper Belt, also known as the Edgeworth-Kuiper belt, is a flat ring of small icy bodies orbiting the Sun beyond Neptune’s orbit.
- Gerard Kuiper, a Dutch-American astronomer, first hypothesized its existence in the 1950s.
- This belt contains millions of icy objects, collectively referred to as Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) or trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs).
- It is considered a remnant from the early history of our solar system.
- The Kuiper Belt is thought to be the source of many short-period comets that orbit the Sun in less than 20 years.
- It primarily consists of small icy bodies, including dwarf planets, asteroids, and comets.
- Pluto, once classified as the ninth planet, is one of the most well-known objects in the Kuiper Belt but was reclassified as a dwarf planet by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 2006, partly due to its location within this belt.
The Astronomers’ Findings
- The Japanese researchers suggest that if this new planet exists, it would be 1.5 to 3 times the size of Earth.
- The discovery challenges previous theories of a distant “Planet Nine” and posits the possibility of a planet closer to us, within the Kuiper Belt.
- The astronomers predict the existence of an Earth-like planet and several trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) on unique orbits that could serve as observational signatures of this potential planet’s perturbations.
- They estimate that this planet could be situated between 200 and 500 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun, tilted about 30 degrees. For reference, Pluto is 39 AU from Earth.
