Dark Planet (9)

New evidence suggests a ninth planet lurking at the edge of the solar system. Astronomers at the California Institute of Technology announced 22-1-2016 that they have found new evidence of a giant icy planet is lurking in the darkness of our solar system far beyond the orbit of Pluto. They are calling it "Planet Nine." As their paper, gets published in the Astronomical Journal. It describes the planet as about five to 10 times more massive as the Earth. But the authors, astronomers Michael Brown and Konstantin Batygin, have not observed the planet directly. Instead, they have inferred its existence, from the motion of recently discovered dwarf planets and other small objects in the outer solar system. Those smaller bodies have orbits that appear to be influenced by the gravity of a hidden planet – a "massive perturber." The astronomers suggest it might have been flung into deep space long ago by the gravitational force of Jupiter or Saturn.

As telescopes on at least two continents are searching for the object, which on average is 20 times farther away than the eighth planet, Neptune. If "Planet Nine" exists, it's big. Its estimated mass would make it about two to four times the diameter of the Earth, distinguishing it as the fifth-largest planet after Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. But at such extreme distances, it would reflect so little sunlight that it could evade even the most powerful telescopes. Confirmation of its existence would reconfigure the models of the solar system. Pluto, discovered in 1930, spent three-quarters of a century as the iconic ninth planet. Then, a decade ago, Pluto received a controversial demotion, in large part because of Brown. His observations of the outer solar system identified many small worlds there – some close to the size of Pluto –and prompted the International Astronomical Union to reconsider the definition of a planet. The IAU voted to change Pluto's classification to "dwarf planet," a decision mocked repeatedly last summer when NASA's New Horizons probe flew past Pluto and revealed a world with an atmosphere, weather and a volatile and dynamically reworked surface. 

Brown, who tweets under the handle @plutokiller and who wrote the book "How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming," said now may be the time to rewrite the textbooks yet again. "My daughter, she's still kind of mad about Pluto being demoted, even though she was barely born at that time," Brown said. "She suggested a few years ago that she'd forgive me if I found a new planet. So I guess I've been working on this for her. " impression of Planet Nine, which could sit at the edge of our solar system. Brown and Batygin initially set out to prove that Planet Nine didn't exist. Their paper builds on earlier research by two other astronomers that revealed a peculiar clustering of the small, icy objects discovered in the past decade or so in the remote regions of the solar system. photo Pluto with its moon charon. 

In 2014, Scott Sheppard of the Washington-based Carnegie Institution of Science and Chad Trujillo of the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii published a paper in the journal Nature that discussed the potential existence of a giant planet affecting the orbits of those dwarf worlds. Sheppard and Trujillo noted a similarity in the motion of those bodies when they are closest to the sun. "We thought their idea was crazy," Brown said, explaining that extra planets are always the "go-to suggestion" when astronomers find orbital behavior they can't explain. But he and Batygin struggled to debunk that hypothetical ninth planet. They used mathematical equations and then computer models, ultimately concluding that the best explanation for the smaller objects' clustering was the gravitational effects of something far bigger.

Such clustering is similar to what's seen in some asteroids that are about as close to the sun as the Earth. They wind up in stable orbits that keep them far from Earth and free from any significant disturbance by the Earth's gravity. "Until then, we didn't really believe our results ourselves. It just didn't make sense to us," Brown said. But their modeling showed that a planet with 10 times the mass of Earth would exert an influence over the orbits of the smaller bodies and keep them from coming as close to the sun as they should. It would also slowly twist these orbits by 90 degrees, making them periodically perpendicular to the plane of the solar system. "In the back of my head, I had this nagging memory that someone had found some of these modulating objects and not known what to make of them," Brown said. "and sure enough, these objects do exist. Then they were exactly where our theory predicts they should be." rendered image of moon Charon much more interesting than this.

That's when the Caltech researchers started to take Planet Nine seriously. "That was the real jaw-dropping moment, when it went from a cute little idea to something that might be for real," he said.

Sheppard, who co-awrote the paper that Brown and Batygin set out to disprove, says the existence of a hidden planet is still a big unknown. "Until we actually see it for real, it will always be questionable as to whether it exists," he said, cautioning that the latest calculations are based on a relatively small number of known objects and that further observations and detections of perturbed bodies would bolster the hypothesis. Still, Sheppard significantly upped the odds of discovery – from 40 percent before to 60 percent now. “Some people took it seriously, but a lot of people didn’t," he said of his own study's findings. "With this new work, it’s much more rigorous, and people will take it more seriously now.”

From the Côte d'Azur Observatory in Nice, France, planetary scientist Alessandro Morbidelli agreed that the evidence was stronger this time. "I immediately felt that this paper, for the first time, was providing convincing evidence for a new planet in the solar system," said Morbidelli, an expert in these kinds of orbital movements who was not involved in either study. "I don't see any alternative explanation to that offered by Batygin and Brown." "We will find it one day," he added. "The question is when." The past two decades have seen a burst of discoveries as astronomers have scrutinized the light of distant stars and looked for signs of orbiting planets. More than a thousand such planets have been detected through analysis of starlight that has traveled across the vast interstellar distances. Brown and Batygin, however, have been searching closer to home, looking for objects that orbit the sun and remain unseen only because the outer regions of the solar system are exceedingly dark.

The thought of a hidden planet larger than Earth is intriguing, but for now it's difficult to say too much about the hypothetical conditions there. Brown believes it's probably an icy, rocky world with a small envelope of gas – a planet that could have been the core of a gas giant had it not been ejected into a wonky, highly elliptical orbit. It might not make its closest approach of the sun more than once every 10,000 years, and even then it would remain far beyond the known planets. The situation mimics what happened in the 19th century when careful observation of the seventh planet, Uranus, indicated that there must be another body in far-distant space influencing its orbit. That work led eventually to the discovery of Neptune. It would be difficult to see the ninth planet if it's not at or near its closest approach to the sun. Brown doesn't believe the object is at that point, saying it would have been spotted by now. But he does think that the most powerful telescopes on the planet, if pointed in precisely the right direction, might be able to detect it even when it is most distant from the sun.

"We've been looking for it for a while now, but the sky is pretty big," Brown said. "We know its path, but not where it is on that path." He and Batygin hope their paper's publication will infuse the search with new energy. "If other people – better astronomers – get excited about the idea of finding Planet Nine, we could hopefully see it within a couple of years," he said. The two know they may not get credit for that discovery. Until the planet is spotted directly with a telescope, any work surrounding it is theoretical. Brown, Batygin and other scientists who have made the case for Planet Nine's existence are providing treasure maps and clues – but someone else could very well strike gold before they do. If and when it's spotted, Planet Nine would be evaluated by the same criteria that got Pluto demoted. Brown isn't concerned about that.

"That's not even a question -- it's definitely a planet," he said. One of the trickiest criterion for planet status, based on the standards set by the International Astronomical Union, is that a planet must "clear the neighborhood" around its orbital zone. It needs to have the gravitational prowess to change the orbits of other objects. "Planet Nine is forcing any objects that cross its orbit to push into these misaligned positions. It fits that concept perfectly," Brown said. The "Pluto killer" added: "Not to mention the fact that it's 5,000 times the mass of Pluto." Q&A: The ‘Pluto Killer’ who thinks he’s found the true ninth planet.Flashback to 2004: Mike Brown discovers "Sedn" This is what it looks like when a black hole tears a star apart. This broken space telescope keeps spotting new planets. Why NASA’s top scientist is sure that we’ll find signs of alien life in the next decade and everyone else is sure that thay wont and what is our perception of life?

Probing For Habitats.

A new space probe will look for extra-terrestrial existence on the icy moons of Jupiter.
As the European Space Agency announced it has joined forces with Airbus to develop a new space probe to look for extra-terrestrial existence on the icy moons of Jupiter. It will launch in 2022 and head for the ocean-bearing worlds of Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Dubbed the Juice (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) spacecraft, the mission will look at whether the frozen worlds which surround gas giants could support extra-terrestrial life. Can there be Life in the Environment of Jupiter? This is a drawing of the Galileo probe exploring the environment of Jupiter. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory Jupiter's atmospheric environment is one of strong gravity, high pressure, strong winds, from 225 miles per hour to 1000 miles per hour, and cold temperatures of -270 degrees to +32 degrees (freezing temperature). These winds make it hard for life forms to have "peace and quiet".

The region where it is 32 degrees sounds OK, but where the temperature is 32 degrees, the pressure is about the same as it would be if you were a couple miles below the sea on Earth. This region is probably within Jupiter's liquid region. The air of Jupiter is definitely a region that is well below freezing temperatures. In the atmosphere there are at least three known cloud decks of ammonia, ammonia-combined-with-sulfur, and water, perhaps even made of huge droplets. There is energy in the environment from lightning, ultraviolet light, and charged particles. Jupiter's interior possesses an environment of pressures as great as three million times the sea-level pressure on earth, and temperatures as high as 10,000 degrees. Overall, this environment sounds very unfriendly to life as we know it on earth.

The hunt for alien life on Jupiter begins European Space Agency joins forces with Airbus to develop new space probe to look for extra-terrestrial existence. In the past year humanity has landed on a comet, ventured to Pluto and discovered another planet which is so like our own it has been dubbed Earth 2.0. But in the coming decades, space exploration is moving beyond charting the Solar System and will seriously start hunting for alien life. Carina Nebula, a region of massive star formation in the southern skies (ESO/T. So far missions like Nasa’s Kepler have focussed on hunting for rocky planets like Earth, believing that they would be the best candidates for life. But the first images beamed back from Pluto by the New Horizons spacecraft earlier this month suggest that icy outer planets and frozen moons could be geologically active and hold liquid water.

It is hoped that micro-organisms or even fish-like creatures may be present in deep-water hydrothermal vents known as 'black smokers' which are known to harbour life on Earth. Dr Daniel Brown, an astronomy expert from Nottingham Trent University, said: "All our current exciting and fascinating space missions have been dealing with either understanding the origins of life and our Solar System or finding exoplanets that might host Earth-like planets. "But, life doesn’t have to exist on planets like Earth, it could also have developed in oceans within icy moons around Jupiter like gas giants. "Juice will be exploring the three Galilean moons of Jupiter thought to harbour oceans under their surface. It will give us a much better understanding what lies beneath the icy crust and how it could offer an environment for life to develop." The probe will be launched on an Ariane 5 rocket and spend seven and half years sling-shooting around Earth, Mars and Venus to pick up enough speed to get to the Jupiter system with as little fuel as possible.

Earth 2014 was world's hottest year on record. For three and a half years, the spacecraft will sweep around the giant planet, exploring its turbulent atmosphere, enormous magnetosphere, and tenuous set of dark rings, as well as studying the icy moons, Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto. All three of the planet-sized satellites are thought to have oceans of liquid water beneath their crusts and could provide key clues on the potential for such bodies to harbour habitable environments. The probe will start with Callisto before making two flybys of Europa, where it will study the icy surface. Dr Brown added: "At the moment we think Europa might be the most likely location to find life. Hopefully we would be able to pick up biomarkers on the surface where cracks on the ice mantle have allowed water from the internal ocean to appear.

"The life forms would then need to survive without any light under high pressure environments. Current research has indicated that there might be more oxygen present than initially expected, so it could not only support microorganisms but possibly fishlike creatures.” The mission will culminate in a dedicated, eight-month tour around Ganymede, the first time any icy moon has been orbited by a spacecraft. And Ganymede is the only moon in the Solar System known to generate its own magnetic field so scientists are keen to work out how that is being achieved. “Juice will address the question: are there current habitats outside Earth in the Solar System with the necessary conditions to sustain life?” said François Auque, Head of Space Systems at Airbus. “After the Sun, Mercury, Venus, the Earth, Mars, Titan… and even a comet, our engineers’ next challenge is to build this sophisticated spacecraft to explore the Jupiter system.”

Russia also plans a mission soon, except to land on Jupiter's Moon Ganymede. This is larger than Earth's moon with more details soon.
The ESA spacecraft will carry 10 instruments covering a wide range of measurements techniques (optical, sub-millimetre, radar, magnetic electric, plasma and particle sensors). Weighing five and a half tonnes, Juice will be powered by a large 97 m² solar generator, the largest ever sent into space. “Jupiter and its icy moons constitute a kind of mini-Solar System in their own right, offering European scientists and our international partners the chance to learn more about the formation of potentially habitable worlds around other stars," added Dmitrij Titov, ESA's Juicd Study Scientist. As Nasa and the warp drive Five of the most ingenious van decorations