Why Can't Scientists Find the Enormous Planet X?
Summary
TLDRThe script delves into the mystery of 'Planet Nine,' a hypothesized massive planet in our solar system, potentially 10 times the mass of Earth. It explores the history of its search, starting with Percival Lowell's theories and the discovery of Pluto, to recent anomalies in the orbits of distant objects suggesting a hidden planet. Despite skepticism and past misconceptions, the script highlights the ongoing quest for evidence, pondering the possibility of a yet undiscovered celestial body influencing our solar system's far reaches.
Takeaways
- ๐ The script discusses the ongoing mystery and exploration of our universe, emphasizing that there is still much to discover despite our advancements in science and technology.
- ๐ It highlights the concept of 'Planet Nine', a hypothesized ninth planet in our solar system that is believed to be significantly larger than Earth, with its existence suggested by the gravitational influences on distant objects.
- ๐ก The search for Planet Nine is influenced by the unusual orbits of certain objects in the Kuiper Belt, which some astronomers interpret as evidence of a massive, yet unseen, planet.
- ๐ก The script mentions the historical context of Percival Lowell's search for 'Planet X', which was later identified as Pluto, but did not account for the gravitational anomalies observed in Uranus and Neptune's orbits.
- ๐ Lowell's initial mistake led to the discovery of Pluto, but subsequent data showed that Pluto was not massive enough to cause the gravitational disturbances he hypothesized.
- ๐ The script explains that the true cause of the orbital discrepancies of Uranus and Neptune was a miscalculation of Neptune's mass, not a ninth planet.
- ๐ฎ Recent discussions about Planet Nine have been reignited by astronomers like Konstantin Batygin and Michael Brown, who have observed clustering in the orbits of distant objects, suggesting a massive, unseen influence.
- ๐ The difficulty in finding Planet Nine lies in its predicted location far away from the Sun, at around 600 astronomical units, making it challenging to detect with current technology.
- ๐ญ The script compares the search for Planet Nine to the search for exoplanets, explaining that different methods are used for detection depending on the distance and visibility of the objects.
- ๐ค It acknowledges the skepticism surrounding the existence of Planet Nine, given that its evidence is not yet extraordinary, and that the theory is based on a limited sample size of observed objects.
- ๐ The script concludes by suggesting that the truth about Planet Nine may be revealed in the future, as technology advances and more data is collected, leaving the audience with a sense of wonder and anticipation.
Q & A
What is the main topic of the video script?
-The main topic of the video script is the ongoing debate and search for a hypothetical ninth planet in our solar system, often referred to as 'Planet Nine'.
Why do some scientists believe in the existence of a ninth planet in our solar system?
-Some scientists believe in the existence of a ninth planet due to observed orbital anomalies of extreme trans-Neptunian objects (ETNOs) that suggest the gravitational influence of a yet undiscovered massive body.
Who was Percival Lowell and what was his contribution to the search for Planet Nine?
-Percival Lowell was an astronomer who built an observatory in Arizona and hypothesized the existence of a ninth planet, which he called 'Planet X', to explain the discrepancies in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune.
Outlines
๐ The Enigma of Planet Nine
The script introduces the concept of a potential ninth planet in our solar system, which is hypothesized to be significantly larger than Earth and exerting gravitational influence on distant objects. Despite advancements in technology and astronomy, the existence of this elusive planet remains a mystery, with its potential location estimated to be around 600 astronomical units from the Sun. The narrator emphasizes the vastness of the solar system and the limitations of our knowledge, drawing a comparison between the search for Planet Nine and the discovery of distant galaxies to highlight the scale of the challenge.
๐ญ Percival Lowell's Quest for Planet X
This paragraph delves into the history of the search for a ninth planet, beginning with Percival Lowell's interest in astronomy and his belief in the existence of a 'Planet X' affecting the orbits of Uranus and Neptune. Lowell's dedication led to the construction of an observatory and a prolonged search, which continued even after his death in 1916. The discovery of Pluto in 1930 at Lowell's observatory was initially celebrated as the confirmation of Lowell's theory, but later analysis revealed Pluto to be too small to have the gravitational influence Lowell had proposed.
๐ Resurgence of Planet Nine Theory
The narrative continues with the resurgence of the ninth planet hypothesis in recent years, driven by astronomers Constantin Batygin and Michael Brown. They identified peculiar orbital patterns among extreme trans-Neptunian objects (ETNOs) that could not be explained by the current model of the solar system. The similarities between Lowell's and Batygin and Brown's theories, despite being a century apart, suggest a persistent belief in an undiscovered massive planet. However, the scientific community remains divided, with skepticism surrounding the extraordinary claim.
๐ The Challenge of Detecting Planet Nine
This paragraph discusses the difficulties in detecting Planet Nine due to the limitations of our observational methods. It explains that the techniques used to find distant exoplanets, such as transit photometry, are not applicable to the search for Planet Nine within our solar system. The vast distances and the dim nature of the hypothesized planet make its detection a challenging task. The paragraph also mentions alternative theories, such as the possibility of a hidden black hole, as an explanation for the observed anomalies.
๐ค The Debate Over Planet Nine's Existence
The final paragraph wraps up the discussion by acknowledging the ongoing debate over the existence of Planet Nine. It points out that the evidence for Planet Nine is not yet extraordinary and that the burden of proof lies with those making the claim. The narrator suggests that while Batygin and Brown are confident in their theory, the scientific method demands conclusive evidence before the existence of Planet Nine can be accepted. The script ends with an invitation to stay tuned for future developments in this astronomical mystery.
Mindmap
Keywords
๐กPlanet Nine
๐กAstronomical Unit (AU)
๐กTrans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs)
๐กOrbital Anomalies
๐กPercy Lowell
๐กClyde Tombaugh
๐กKuiper Belt
๐กTransit Photometry
๐กConstantine Batygin and Michael Brown
๐กPrimordial Black Hole
๐กFarFarOut
Highlights
The ongoing quest to demystify the universe continues with the possibility of undiscovered secrets in unexpected places such as our own solar system.
Despite advancements in technology, our understanding of the solar system beyond the eight planets and their moons remains limited.
Some scientists propose the existence of a ninth planet, potentially ten times the mass of Earth and four times its radius, influencing the orbits of distant celestial bodies.
The concept of Planet Nine is intriguing due to its potential stealthy influence on the solar system from an estimated distance of 600 astronomical units away.
The search for Planet Nine is compared to the difficulty of detecting distant galaxies and exoplanets, highlighting the vastness of the universe and our solar system.
The history of the search for a ninth planet dates back over 100 years to Percival Lowell, who hypothesized Planet X due to observed discrepancies in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune.
Clyde Tombaugh's discovery of Pluto in 1930 was initially thought to be the elusive Planet X, but later measurements revealed it to be too small to account for the observed gravitational influences.
Modern astronomers have reignited the Planet Nine theory based on the unusual orbits of extreme trans-Neptunian objects (ETNOs) in the Kuiper Belt.
Constantine Batygin and Michael Brown's hypothesis suggests Planet Nine's existence due to the clustering and peculiar orbits of ETNOs.
The difficulty in detecting Planet Nine is attributed to its dimness and the vast, mostly unexplored volume of our solar system.
Transit photometry, a method used to detect exoplanets, is ineffective for finding distant objects like Planet Nine within our solar system.
The search for Planet Nine relies on traditional telescopes and the prediction of its potential location based on gravitational influences.
Alternative theories to Planet Nine include the possibility of a small, primordial black hole causing the observed anomalies in ETNO orbits.
The evidence for Planet Nine is based on a small sample size of ETNOs, and drawing large conclusions from limited data sets can be misleading.
Batygin and Brown believe that the existence of Planet Nine will be confirmed in time, as technology and observation methods improve.
The search for Planet Nine exemplifies the scientific process of hypothesis, observation, and the pursuit of truth in the face of uncertainty.
Transcripts
hey 42 here as science and technology
continue to demystify the world around
us
we humans have a bad habit of assuming
we already know it all but the truth is
whilst we're discovering new things
about the nature of our universe
all the time we've barely scratched the
surface when it comes to knowing
everything there is to know there are
plenty of secrets out there
just waiting to be revealed and there's
a good chance we're going to find some
of them
in the most unexpected of places take
our very own solar system for example
it's easy to think that in 2021
thanks to millennia of stargazing and
the recent introduction of some pretty
nifty telescopes
we know exactly what's going on out
there and where
but the solar system is a big place
and once we travel past its eight
planets and
their 200 odd moons our understanding
of our own cosmic backyard is
surprisingly sketchy
so much so that some scientists believe
the furthest reaches of the solar system
hide a truly giant secret
an undiscovered ninth planet
and we aren't talking about some
diminutive planet
wannabe like pluto sorry pluto
or ceres if proponents of the planet
nine theory
are to be believed our solar system's
currently unidentified
ninth member is actually kind of a
monster
as much as ten times the mass of earth
and four times its radius
this postulated planet is portrayed as a
kind of
stealthy puppet master hinting got its
own existence
by subtly adjusting the orbits of
millions of distant asteroids
and dwarf planets with tendrils of
gravity
pretty intriguing right but how could
such a huge planet remain hidden in our
very
own solar system even today when modern
technology is helping us unravel the
inner workings of galaxies
halfway across the known universe to put
some context around that question
planet nine is thought to be hanging out
around 600 astronomical units
from the solar system's center an
astronomical unit
being the average distance between the
earth and
sun in the context of our solar system
600 au is a very very long way indeed
by comparison neptune's orbit puts it at
a mere
30 au from the sun but in the context of
the universe
where distances are usually measured in
light years
600 au is nothing the most distant
object from earth
ever detected is a galaxy known as gnz11
and it can be found a cool 32 billion
light years
from where you're sitting right now when
we train our telescopes on gnz11
we're seeing the universe as it was just
400 million years
after the big bang admittedly galaxies
are a tad bigger and brighter than
planets
but even the most distant exoplanets so
far detected
an exoplanet being any planet located
outside
of our own solar system are much much
further away than planets nine
first observed in 2006 sweeps 4
and sweeps 11 were found orbiting a star
in the constellation sagittarius they're
approximately 27
700 light years away from earth
which means the most distant planets
known to humans are around three million
times further away from earth than
planet nine is purported to be
think of it as the astronomical
equivalent of a
cryptozoologist discovering a tribe of
yetis
high up amongst the cloudy peaks of the
himalayas
without ever realizing one had been
living in his garden the whole time
and that slightly odd analogy leads me
back to the same question
is it really possible that a giant
planet
could be lurking in our solar system
without
us realizing before we get into all of
that
why do people believe planet nine even
exists in the first place
the search for our solar system's ninth
member began over 100 years ago
with a man named percival lowell who
became interested in astronomy after
reading a book about mars
most people who get into stargazing buy
themselves a book or two
and invest in some kind of simple
telescope but
lowell happens to be a member of that
particular cross-section of society
known as
rich people so he kicked off his new
hobby
by building himself an observatory on
the top of a mountain
in arizona lowell was a very smart guy
but it's fair to say he was probably
more famous for his crazy ideas
than his good ones on the crazier side
he believed there was life on mars and
that he'd found evidence to prove
it of course the idea that maybe life on
mars isn't particularly controversial
even today but lowell wasn't talking
about life
of the microscopic variety more of the
little green men
kind another of lowell's bold but
possibly mental ideas was his belief in
the existence of what he called
planet x which sounds like it should be
the birthplace of a marvel super villain
but was actually just a name he gave to
a hypothetical ninth planet
he believed was hiding in our solar
system
for all his her brain schemes lowell
appeared to have a pretty good
reason to suspect another planet might
be lurking somewhere
out there he determines that the orbits
of the outermost planets in the solar
system
uranus and neptune were slightly
different to what mathematics
predicted based on our existing
planetary model
almost as if they were being tugged off
course by some kind of
distant massive object planet x
lowell began searching for this elusive
celestial creature
in 1906. devoting the entirety of his
energy to the endeavor
but the years went by without success
it's said lol became so obsessed with
his quest
that his inability to find planet x
eventually killed him
though i should point out his coroner
saw things a little differently
recording glow's cause of death in 1916
as a stroke despite lowell's demise his
passion and a large chunk of his cash
ensured the search for planetex
continued
after his death and in 1930 the
breakthrough was finally made when clyde
tombaugh
discovered a new planet using the
telescope at lowell's very own
observatory
in arizona our solar system's newest
inductee
was duly named pluto partly in tribute
to percival lowell
its first two letters matching his
initials you see
you're only mental until you're right
as you can probably imagine the folks at
the lowell observatory were pretty
bloody pleased with themselves at this
development
and much slapping of backs and hiding of
fives ensued
but those good vibes didn't last long
because it turned out the reason it had
taken decades to find pluto
was that it was very very faint and very
slow moving across the sky
suggesting it was a lot further out than
the other planets
and probably pretty small these
suspicions were confirmed in 1978
when pluto's moon sharon was discovered
allowing astronomers to definitively
determine the planet's mass
as it happened poor old pluto was a
tiddler
just one-sixth the mass of our own moon
such a diminutive distant planet would
have been about as capable of knocking
planetary heavyweights
uranus and neptune out of their
predicted orbits
as i would be of knocking anthony joshua
onto the canvas
to become heavyweight champion of the
world i.e
not very it was clear pluto was not the
plenitex percival was looking for
but wait a minute if pluto wasn't
causing neptune and uranus's orbital
oddities
that meant something else was right
actually wrong because it turns out the
whole
dodgy orbits of neptune and uranus
theory
has been one giant cosmic red herring
all along
a fact that was proven in 1989 when
voyager 2
visited neptune and discovered we'd
misjudged
its mass when astronomers plugged the
correct values into those complicated
astronomical equations they're all so
fond of they discovered the orbits of
both uranus and
neptune had been exactly where they were
supposed to be
the whole time and that was officially
the end of planet x
the theorized ninth planet in our solar
system
had never been there in the first place
if i'd made this video a decade ago
it would probably have ended right here
and i would have been up a suit and down
a mustache
obviously but over the last 10 years
astronomers have begun
whispering about planet nine once more
because whilst
lowell's belief in a hidden ninth planet
turned out to have been founded
on a massive mistake
weirdly enough it seems the conclusion
this false trail led him to
may just have been correct after all
perhaps the best
known planet nine theory today was put
forward by astronomers
constantine battigan and michael brown
in
2016. and their hypothesis isn't all
that different to lowell's from 100
years before
batagan and brown had also discovered
orbital anomalies
that were difficult to explain based on
our current understanding of the solar
system
though in this case the orbits were of
extreme
trans-neptunian objects ethnos
rather than planets ethnos are a group
of solar system satellites orbiting the
sun far out beyond neptune in the most
distant parts of a region called the
kuiper belt
we think there are literally billions of
these asteroids out there
though to date we've only found and
catalogued around
2 000 of them the ones we found so far
seem to share some pretty unusual
properties
we're talking orbits that are
perpendicular to those of the planets
and almost everything else in the solar
system orbits that travel the opposite
way around the sun
to almost everything else in the solar
system
and perhaps most significantly of all
orbits that seem to be clustered
together in a very specific
very non-random way so
what's causing all this weirdness you
guessed it planet nine is back
considering how badly things went with
the first astronomical expedition to
find planet nine
it's easy to be skeptical about these
claims and
plenty of people are after all it is a
bit of a weird coincidence that
two completely separate observatories
100 years apart
have led two very different sets of
scientists to believe in the same
hidden giant planet far out in the solar
system
but vatican and brown are certainly no
crackpots out to make gravitational
waves
they're incredibly well respected in
their fields and have a string of
accolades to their names
constantine vatican was named on the
forbes list of 30 scientists
under 30 who are changing the world
back in 2015 unpopular science magazine
named him one of 2016's most brilliant
people
mike brown on the other hand is
ironically enough
the self-styled man who kills pluto
having been instrumental in the
reclassification
of our solar system's pretender to the
planet 9 crown
to a dwarf planet back in 2006.
he also co-discovered a dwarf planet of
his own
iris in 2005. with
most radical scientific theories that
threaten to
fundamentally change our understanding
of established facts
you have huge numbers of skeptics on one
side of the argument
and a few eccentric and passionate
believers on the other
a bit like lowell and his belief in
martians
but when it comes to planet nine both
sides of the debate
are populated with bonafide geniuses
and all of them seem to be talking sense
when they argue
for or against the existence of planet
nine
so how are we mere mortals supposed to
figure out what to believe
well as carl sagan once said
extraordinary claims require
extraordinary evidence
and whilst there is some interesting
evidence pointing to the existence of
planet nine
to call it extraordinary would be
stretching the truth
just a little bit even basically and
brown themselves concede
they can't be sure planet 9 exists until
they actually manage to
find the damn thing which brings us back
to our all-important question
if planet nine really is out there
why haven't we found it yet i mentioned
earlier that the two most distant
exoplanets so far located
are three million times further away
from earth
than planet nine is supposed to be but
as is often the case with very big
numbers
it's hard to picture what that really
means
so let's shrink it down to human scale
if
you representing the earth we're
standing in dublin
ireland and both sweeps4 and sweeps 11
were in moscow where do you think you
would find
planet nine the answer is
also in dublin and in fact rather closer
than that
it would be less than one meter from the
tip of your nose
when you put it in those terms it's easy
to assume that
if we haven't found planet nine yet
that's because
it isn't there it should be staring us
in the face
literally it's easy to assume that
but neither of us are asses so we
probably
shouldn't in reality the fact we've been
able to locate such distant exoplanets
has no real relevance to the hunt for
planet nine
we found sweeps4 and sweeps 11 using a
method called
transit photometry which involves
monitoring a whole bunch of stars for a
long period of time
and watching out for any small dips in
the intensity of light given
off which might indicate a planet
crossing or
transiting the star's surface we use
these kinds of techniques because
exoplanets are essentially
invisible to us here on earth they
simply aren't
bright enough to be seen directly so
we're only able to detect them by
watching out for
any impact they may be having on their
parent
star that makes searching for exoplanets
very hit and miss and when i say hit and
miss
what i really mean is a whole lot of
missing
interspersed with very very occasional
hits to detect an exoplanet through
transit photometry
the earth the planet and its parent star
have to be perfectly aligned otherwise a
transit
won't take place if you were to pick a
random star similar to our own somewhere
out there in space
the odds of us being able to detect an
earth-like planet
orbiting it at 1au using transit
photometry
would be a little under half a percent
think of transit photometry as a
brute-force approach to fighting
exoplanets
monitor thousands of stars over the
course of a few years
and you're bound to locate a few
exoplanets here and there
despite the relatively long odds if
on the other hand you wanted to find a
specific
planet orbiting a single star transit
photometry
would be next to useless in our own
solar system
transit photometry would only be able to
help us find the planets with tighter
orbits than our own
mercury and venus basically and both of
those are visible with the naked eye
when it comes to searching for planet
nine and other distant objects out in
the kuiper belt
and beyond we pretty much have to rely
on regular old telescopes
which makes the whole thing a seriously
tricky business
earlier this year it was confirmed that
the most distant object currently known
in our solar system is a planetoid
called
far far out which is just 140
au from the sun that's only about a
quarter of the way to planet nine
admittedly far far out is also far
far smaller than planet nine is supposed
to be
but still the point is we have never
detected an object as distant as planet
9
within our own solar system not even
close
which means that just because we haven't
found it yet
that doesn't mean it isn't out there
the solar system is very very big
and the vast majority of it by volume is
still
basically unknown to us vatican and
brown believe planet nine is
so dim it will only just be visible with
our current technology
given perfect atmospheric conditions
which may only come around a few times
per year
so for now all we can do is try
to predict where we think it should be
then train our best telescopes on that
part of the sky
and hope earlier i compared not being
able to find
planet nine in a world where we've
already tracked down planets
tens of light years from earth to
finding yetis in the himalayas
without realizing one's been living in
the garden
but in truth that analogy is a little
bit off
because it turns out if there is a yeti
in our garden
he's chronically shy and fond of
dressing up in full-on
camo gear whereas the few yetis we found
out there in the himalayas
just happens to be in exactly the right
place at the right time
and we're yodeling at the top of their
lungs i should point out there are other
possible explanations for what might be
causing the
unusual orbits of the ethnos we've found
so far
perhaps the most interesting of which is
the idea that a black hole
hidden within our own solar system might
be to blame
before you start worrying the earth is
about to be sucked into a giant cosmic
vacuum cleaner
the black hole in question would be a
tiny primordial black hole
and as yet purely theoretical variety
that may have formed soon after the big
bang this particular flavor of black
hole is much smaller than your average
collapsed star type being only about the
size of a grapefruit
but with a mass five to ten times that
of the earth
as interesting as both this and the
planet nine theory sound
the truth may actually be far simpler
remember how the evidence leading lowell
to believe in planet x turned out to be
a red herring
well it's quite possible that could be
the case here too
vatican and brown are basing their
assumptions on the very small sample
size
of etinos we've been able to study so
far we're talking tens out of the total
population
in the billions and drawing big
conclusions
planet-sized ones in fact from small
data sets is a dangerous business
no matter how compelling they may seem
on the surface
ultimately in science the burden of
truth lies with whoever's making the
contentious claim
and for now basically and brown haven't
been able to prove their theory
they do however believe it's only a
matter of time
so i guess that means all we need to do
is watch this space literally
thanks for watching you can get your
hands on my book stick a flag in it over
on amazon or on audible links to both in
the description below
thank you
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