Dark Jupiter May Haunt Edge of Solar System

[n2doc]

By Lisa Grossman November 29, 2010 | 5:24 pm | Categories: Astronomy, Space

A century of comet data suggests a dark, Jupiter-sized object is lurking at the solar system’s outer edge and hurling chunks of ice and dust toward Earth.

“We’ve accumulated 10 years’ more data, double the comets we viewed to test this hypothesis,” said planetary scientist John Matese of the University of Louisiana. “Only now should we be able to falsify or verify that you could have a Jupiter-mass object out there.”

In 1999, Matese and colleague Daniel Whitmire suggested the sun has a hidden companion that boots icy bodies from the Oort Cloud, a spherical haze of comets at the solar system’s fringes, into the inner solar system where we can see them.

In a new analysis of observations dating back to 1898, Matese and Whitmire confirm their original idea: About 20 percent of the comets visible from Earth were sent by a dark, distant planet.

more

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/oort-cloud-companion/

[Ichingcarpenter]

1. I think if it exists it should be named Kronos

Who was the leader and the youngest of the first generation of Titans

He overthrew his father and ruled during the mythological Golden Age, until he was overthrown by his own son, Zeus./Jupiter.

He was imprisoned in Tartarus, a deep, gloomy place, a pit, or an abyss.Tartarus is also the unbounded first-existing entity from which the Light and the cosmos are born.

The mythology aside and looking at the science, I wonder why it would have to be just one Jupiter size planet and not some other Titans too.

[Ian David]

2. We should name it Xena.

But we have to name it quickly, before someone names it after Ronald Reagan.

[Ichingcarpenter]

3. That Carl Sagen Voyager 1 message update is scary and funny

Todd and Sarah representing Earth..... Yikes! LOL!

[Ian David]

4. Explains why we haven't heard from E.T.

[laconicsax]

7. You mean Saturn?

:shrug:

[Ichingcarpenter]

8. couldn't name the so called planet Saturn could you?

Since we already have one called that?


I like the Greek Titan name for this example.
Besides the Roman name is already taken.

[laconicsax]

9. That's the point--Saturn is taken, so why name give the name to a new planet?

There are plenty of names in Greek and Roman mythology that aren't taken.

[jayfish]

10. No way. It should be called Klendathu. -NT-

[LiberalEsto]

5. It's Dick Cheney nt

[hootinholler]

6. Nemisis?

Isn't there a planet theory with a dark planet called nemisis?

-Hoot

[14thColony]

19. Nemisis is the name of a hypothetical companion star of the sun,

postulated as a brown or red dwarf star many times the mass of Jupiter. Now the kicker would be if we have a Jupiter mass planet AND a dwarf binary partner way out there.

[felix_numinous]

11. I would vote the name Dione

if I had a say in it :) -there needs to be another female planet. Dione, being the female aspect of Zeus (Jupiter), would fit if these planets are equal in size.

http://www.theoi.com/Titan/TitanisDione.html

[jayfish]

12. Dione is already taken.

http://www.solarviews.com/eng/dione.htm

Sorry.

[felix_numinous]

18. Aw shucks.

well back to the drawing board.

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. It should be called Golgafrincham

’The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ has this to say about the planet of Golgafrincham: It is a planet with an ancient and mysterious history, in which the most mysterious figures of all are, without doubt, those of the Great Circling poets of Arium. These Circling Poets used to live in remote mountain passes where they would lie and wait for small bands of unwary travellers, circle round them, and throw rocks at them. And when the travellers cried out saying ‘why didn’t they go away and get on with writing some poems instead of pestering people with all this rock-throwing business,’ they would suddenly break off and sing them an incredibly long and beautiful song ...

http://www.clivebanks.co.uk/THHGTTG/THHGTTGradio6.htm

Plus, it'd be a lot easier for the 'B' ark to reach here if Golgafrincham was in orbit round the Sun all this time. And it's time we moved on from ancient myths to modern fiction for naming things.

[laconicsax]

14. This may be a stupid question...

Shouldn't an object that big cause detectable perturbations in the orbits of the outer planets and known Kupier belt objects? A planet 1.4 times larger than Jupiter should be have amassed quite the planetary system if no cleared its orbit already, right?

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. If it's in the Oort cloud, it's a long way out - 0.3 to 0.8 light-years from the sun

if it's in the outer Oort cloud, which is where the article seems to place it.

On edit: call it 0.3 light years:

The results support a conjecture that there exists a companion of mass ~ 1-4 M_Jup orbiting in the innermost region of the outer Oort cloud

http://arxiv.org/abs/1004.4584

Which is a long way away to influence Kuiper belt objects.

[laconicsax]

16. There, I knew it was a stupid question. n/t

[Hatchling]

17. Getting WISE About Nemesis

http://www.astrobio.net/exclusive/3427/getting-wise-about-nemesis

Cool article about the possibility of a companion star (brown dwarf).

Theories about our companion star have abounded for years.

There are also a lot of out there theories about a 12th planet called Planet X or Niburu due to orbit back in time for 2012.