Massive Jupiter-Sized Dark Object May Lurk at Edge of Solar System

Comet data that has been collected for over a century suggests that a dark Jupiter sized object is lurking at the edge of the solar system, and may be hurling ice and dust chunks towards Earth.

Planetary scientist John Matese of the University of Louisiana explained that 10 years worth of data were added to the initial research to test the hypothesis. “Only now should we be able to falsify or verify that you could have a Jupiter-mass object out there.”

Matese, along with his colleague, Daniel Whitmire, think there is a hidden companion to the Sun in the Oort Cloud that is booting icy bodies into the inner solar system where they can be seen. New analysis of observations that have been made for the last hundred-plus years, tell Matese and Whitmire that their original idea can be confirmed.

By analyzing patterns that comets make in space the researchers were able to concur that 20 percent of comets in the Oort Cloud would "need a nudge from a distant object about the size 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.” Matese to wired.com in an interview.

“I think this whole issue will be resolved in the next five to 10 years, because there’s surveys coming on line … that will dwarf the comet sample we have today. Whether these types of asymmetries in the directions that comets are coming from actually do exist or not will definitely be hammered out by those surveys,” Matese added. “We anticipate that WISE is going to falsify or verify our conjecture.”

NASA's WISE, an infrared space telescope, is capable of detecting "dark" objects.

Comments

[Anon]

So that "Planet X" bullcrap... might be true? That's funny.

[man]

It's more funny that you are comparing Planet X with something this massive. There are countless objects out there that we simply cannot see because they do not reflect enough light.

[Biff]

Reminds of this guy on a PBS program of some sort who claimed to have determined the existence of such a body he called nemesis.
According to him, this massive planet was responsible for the roughly once every 60-70 millions extinction grade meteors crashing in the earth.

[matt]

So then why doesn't WISE look???

[Dave24]

Even if "Planet X" is discovered, it doesn't validate the made-up stories surrounding such an object. The discovery only demonstrates that the object exists.

Prophecies written by people who knew nothing of the natural world do not become actual "prophecies" because one element of the story turns out to be true.

If I predict rain next Wednesday, and then it rains, it doesn't mean I'm able to predict the future.

[Zack Covell]

Couldn't Voyager 2 go over and confirm whether or not this object is there? Launched in 1978-ish

thanks in advance.

[man]

last time i heard voyager 2 was glitching

[wormhole]

think there was a science fiction novel with a similar storyline.

[leohaywire]

Maybe it's Pluto's Big Brother name him Goofy.

[Eli]

Anyone know where in the sky this dark planet is supposed to be? Would something like this be added to our planet list or is it a big hunk of ice or iron with gravity influence? Did I miss that?

[KD]

I really don't think its going to be a planet X, its probably more like a Nemesis(Most the stars in the universe are part of binary systems, maybe we just haven't found ours yet).

[John A]

...Couldn't Voyager 2 go over...

You do realize that it's a kinda big place "out there".
And the Voyagers are high-tech slingshot rocks, like all deep space vehicles.

[E.P.]

Zack:
No, unfortunately. Voyager 2 has no fuel, it's basically drifting through space, running it's electronics on solar panels and transmitting back data. It's also too far away now.

[MRFulsom]

So from another article on this site it says "However, astronomers are now able to observe nearby elliptical galaxies using powerful telescopes at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii. These instruments were able to detect the faint signatures of red dwarf stars in eight massive ellipticals that lie about 50,000 and 300 million light-years away."

Question - how is it we can see stuff farther away in other galaxies but yet not see just out our own solar system - is it me or is this all just a bit stinky.

[Vyas Chady]

Nice entertainment.

[the north face]

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[Damion Waltermeyer]

MrFulson,

In answer to your question. It has to do with light.

Imagine that you stand at the very end of a dark 100' corridor. At the far end, you have a small LED on. You can see the LED pretty easily, but it will be hard to tell what else is present in the hallway, you'll be able to make out some silhouettes, but there can be other things hiding in the shadows of those as well.

This is a highly interesting find. I wonder how many more such objects are in our solar system alone.

[Nicholas Riley]

Consideringly, If it hit us we would of been ol' bilterated. No More earth.

[Guy]

Oh did they find Nibiru?

[baseball hats]

These are real wonderful! Thanks for sharing.