Hypothetical Planet X: What If the Neptune-Sized Giant Has Moons?

It was in 2015 that astronomers were able to find evidence that there may be a ninth planet within the earth's own solar system. The Daily Mail reports that this theoretical world has been dubbed Planet Nine or Planet X.

Hypothetical Planet X

While evidence has been gathered, no one has yet allegedly seen this ninth planet. Hence, its existence has remained a theory and a hypothesis until now.

If the hypothetical planet X indeed exists, scientists think that its mass could be ten times greater than that of Earth. It may also take around 10,000 to 20,000 years just to fully rotate the sun.

Science Alert reports that Planet Nine's presence is inferred by orbit clusters that were picked up within the Kuiper Belt of the outer solar system. Scientists reportedly think that there must have been something behind the cause of the gravitational disruption that led to the creation of such orbits.

However, objects within the outer solar system are extremely difficult to detect due to the outer solar system being extraordinarily far away. Science Alert states that if Planet X does exist, it should be moving around the sun around 400 to 800 times farther from earth.

While scientists have been trying to spot this hypothetical planet, it has eluded people. One potential reason is that the planet is dark and may be similar to a black hole. A black hole would not be capable of emitting light, and more than that, it would also be remarkably small and impossible to see even if it did reflect light.

Nevertheless, there are some who still think that Planet Nine can be found. Astronomer Man Ho Chan from the Education University is one of them.

What If Planet Nine Has Moons?

He reveals in a preprinted paper that the smoking gun could be a moon bevy on a mysterious chunk. Chan mentions in the paper how they show the large potential of catching TNOs, or trans-Neptunian objects, of Planet Nine for the satellite system in the region of the scattered disk, which is between the Kuiper Belt and the interior Oort Cloud.

The researchers adopt a particular benchmark model for Planet X to reveal that satellites can be remarkably heated up by the tidal effect. This may then offer sufficient thermal radio flux for observations, even though the hypothetical planet is dark.

Science Alert reports that in the area where Planet Nine is assumed to stay, it should be a prime place for picking moons.

Chan looked into the chances for the planet to catch satellites and discovered how it would be more odd if the hypothetical planet did not pick up any. Based on Chan's calculations, an object with Planet Nine's mass should be able to catch 20 TNOs that are as long as or longer than 140 kilometers.

While the rock pieces could hardly be detected on their own, an interaction with gravity that involves a bigger body could alter things. This was if the moon was large enough.

The satellites picked up by planets usually have elliptical and irregular rotations. This means that the stresses of gravity placed on the moon alter as it gets closer or moves farther from the planet. It stretches out where the pull of gravity is strongest.

Chan says that the internal moon heat gets stressed by the constant alterations. Heat is then dissipated in the form of thermal radiation, which should be traceable as a radio signal.

He notes that, if the hypothetical Planet X is a dark object with a satellite system, their proposal may be capable of directly observing the signals released by the planet's satellites. He says that this makes their proposal a good method to verify the hypothetical planet and see if it is indeed a dark object.

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