In-depth analyses of 101 year's worth of comet data is beginning to indicate that indeed a large, dark, Jupiter-sized object may be roaming the outskirts of the solar system, destabilizing it, and throwing comets towards the Sun and the inner planets.
The new data also indicates that around 20 percent of the comets and other space rocks hurled within the inners solar system were set in motion by this dark and distant planet, which may in fact be a companion of the Sun.
The idea that a large body orbits the star in the outer edges of the solar system was first proposed by University of Louisiana planetary scientist John Matese and colleague Daniel Whitmire some 11 years ago.
They say that the Oort Cloud, a massive formation containing comets and other space rocks located beyond the Kuiper Belt, is being periodically disturbed by this large body, which sets comets on paths that take them around the Sun
“We’ve accumulated 10 years’ more data, double the comets we viewed to test this hypothesis. Only now should we be able to falsify or verify that you could have a Jupiter-mass object out there,” Matese explains, quoted by
Wired.
The team recently finished analyzing comet data spanning back to 1898, and came to the conclusion that indeed one in five comets to make it into the inner solar system are set in motion by a distant, dark planet.
While some astronomers don't believe that the object even exists, “we began to ask, what kind of an object could you hope to infer from the present data that we are seeing?” Matese adds.
“What could possibly tickle [comets'] orbits and make them come very close to the sun so we could see them?” he asks. The expert reveals that the cosmic snowballs that make up cometary nuclei generally hang out in the Oort Cloud until someone interferes with them.
There are three main things that could do this – the gravitational tug of the Milky Way, the passing of a common star nearby, or the passing of a dark planet such as the one the researchers are looking for.
When the researchers mapped the apparent origin of all comets in the database, they found a striking pattern in the sky. “We looked at the patterns and asked, ‘Is there additional evidence of a pattern that might be associated with a passing star or with a bound object?’” Matese says.
After analyzing all available comet data for the last century, the team reported that some 80 percent of them had been nudged by the Milky Way, whereas the other 20 percent were taken out of their comfort zones by an object some 1.4 times the mass of Jupiter.
“Something smaller than Jovian mass wouldn’t be strong enough to do the deed. Something more massive, like a brown dwarf, would give a much stronger signal than the 20 percent we assert,” the expert adds.
He believes that his team will not have long to wait until their theory is either confirmed of denied. The NASA Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope may be able to detect such bodies.
“We anticipate that this WISE is going to falsify or verify our conjecture. We just have to be patient,” Matese concludes.
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