Revolutionary Astronomic Discovery About Two New Planets

Scientists believe that two or more planets, undiscovered before, are yet to be found in a region in space at the edge of our solar system. The region is known as the “inner Oort Cloud”.

Beyond planets Neptune and Pluto, in the cold and dark space lies a belt of rocks astronomers describe as “extreme trans-Neptunian objects” or ETNOs. Spanish scientist Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, professor at the Complutense University of Madrid stated that there is an excess of objects in this region with uncommon orbital parameters. It seems like unseen forces alter the orbits of these celestial bodies found in the belt of ETNOs.

According to de la Fuente Marcos, the only viable explanation is that large rocky planets, as big as or even bigger than Earth exist in that region. No precise number of these planets has been established. The current instruments aren’t able to provide sufficient data for scientists to affirm that planets really do exist in that region. Nonetheless, according to the results acquired by complex calculations, researchers say that there is a strong suggestion about at least two planets or even more that influence the orbit of the rocks.

The pattern should offer a view of ETNOs that are distributed in a random manner beyond planet Neptune and Pluto. Their characteristics should be accurately defined by scientists and their paths should be known. But their orbit show a set of surprising parameters as if they were being pulled by large objects, therefore a gravitational abnormality as this can be explained by the presence of these secret worlds.

Many debates that lasted for decades among astronomers brought the idea of a presence embodied by hidden planets beyond Neptune and Pluto. Without an advanced technology and instruments to prove their existence, no one could say for sure if there were planets in that region. The Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters scientific journal published a research based on “Kozai mechanism”. According to this effect, a small object with a defined orbit can be influenced by a gravitational pull from a large body.

Computer simulation about how our solar system was formed opposed this theory. The results from the computer simulation state that beyond Neptune there cannot be planets with a circular orbit.

Astronomers discovered recently a disk of gas and dust where planets form in a distant zone from their sun, HL Tauri star. The distance from the star is a staggering 100 AU (astronomical units, the distance from the Sun to Earth, estimated of about 93 million miles or 150 million kilometers).

In the following months more results about ETNOs are on the way to be published. Professor De La Fuente Marcos said that astronomy can face revolutionary findings.
Image Source: io9

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Christina Langfold

Remember that weird girl in school who never quite managed to fit in? Who was always silent and strange? That was me during my entire teenage life. A few years after finishing college (with a degree in arts) I decided that the best way to become more sociable, while also feeling safe, is to test my people skills online.