14 DAY TRIAL // As it turns out, it might be that the time has come to gather around our high school science books, neatly arrange them in a pile and set them on fire. If not the entire books, then at least the pages describing the anatomy of our Solar System.
This is because, according to researchers with the Complutense University of Madrid in Spain and the University of Cambridge in the UK, what we so enthusiastically learned about our cosmic neighborhood when we were younger isn't exactly accurate.
Long story short, these scientists say that the Solar System is home to two more planets that are just waiting to be discovered. They go on to detail that these celestial bodies, identified as dwarf planets, are lurking well beyond Pluto.
OK, so what are these researchers basing their claims on?
Writing in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters, the Complutense University of Madrid and the University of Cambridge scientists who conducted this study say that, as part of their work, they studied the behavior of so-called extreme trans-Neptunian objects (ETNO).
Although distributed randomly beyond Neptune, these celestial bodies should all display a well-established and fairly predictable orbital behavior. The thing is that they tend to follow other flight patterns than is expected of them. Hence, chances are that some other objects are interfering with them.
Having carried out a series of calculations, specialists with the Complutense University of Madrid and the University of Cambridge concluded that these influences are most likely gravitational forces originating from at least two unknown dwarf planets that sit beyond Pluto.
“This excess of objects with unexpected orbital parameters makes us believe that some invisible forces are altering the distribution of the orbital elements of the ETNO and we consider that the most probable explanation is that other unknown planets exist beyond Neptune and Pluto.”
“The exact number is uncertain, given that the data that we have is limited, but our calculations suggest that there are at least two planets, and probably more, within the confines of our Solar System,” astrophysicist and study co-author Carlos de la Fuente Marcos said in a statement.
They might be right, but they might also be wrong
The trouble with this study is that, according to previous models that were put together by scientists in an attempt to better understand the formation and the evolution of our cosmic neighborhood, there is no way that other planets, be they dwarf ones, could move in circular orbits past Neptune.
Besides, the Complutense University of Madrid and the University of Cambridge researchers have no choice but to admit that they base their claim that two dwarf planets are waiting to be discovered at the far edge of the Solar System on the analysis of the orbital behavior of just 13 extreme trans-Neptunian objects. The scientists promise to carry out further investigations and soon get back to us with more information.
