New huge planet may hide in our solar system

Potential planet nicknamed Tyche may be up to 4 times the size of Jupiter

February 15, 2011

A new, enormous planet may soon be discovered at the edge of the solar system, say two U.S. astrophysicists searching for proof of the celestial body's existence.

John Matese and Daniel Whitmire, researchers at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, created a mathematical model that shows a distant gas planet one to four times the mass of Jupiter could explain the patterns of comets in a particular region of the sky.

The potential new planet has been nicknamed Tyche after the Greek goddess believed to have influenced the fortune of cities.

Matese and Whitmire published a paper about it in the journal Icarus in November, predicting the planet's location orbiting the innermost region of the outer Oort cloud, a spherical shell of cometary bodies believed to surround the sun far beyond the orbit of Pluto.

The paper suggested evidence of the new planet would have been recorded by NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope, launched in 2009, which is releasing its first batch of data in April.

The researchers told The Independent this week that they believe the data could reveal the new planet within two years.

However, astronomer Phil Plait, who writes the Bad Astronomy blog on Discover Magazine's website, said after reading the papers by Matese and Whitmire, he thought their data "were interesting but unconvincing."

Plait said the researchers' sample size was too small and the planet may not exist at all.

"What I want to see are observations of this planet," he wrote.

The solar system currently has eight known planets.

Pluto, formerly the ninth planet in the solar system, was demoted to a "dwarf planet" by International Astronomical Union in 2006, after the definition of a planet was changed.

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Largest planet in the solar system could be about to be discovered - and it's up to four times the size of Jupiter

Scientists believe they may have found a new planet in the far reaches of the solar system, up to four times the mass of Jupiter.

Its orbit would be thousands of times further from the Sun than the Earth's - which could explain why it has so far remained undiscovered.

Data which could prove the existence of Tyche, a gas giant in the outer Oort Cloud, is set to be released later this year - although some believe proof has already been garnered by Nasa with its pace telescope, Wise, and is waiting to be pored over.

Prof Daniel Whitmire from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette believes the data may prove Tyche's existence within two years.

He told the Independent: 'If it does, [fellow astrophysicist Prof John Matese] and I will be doing cartwheels. And that's not easy at our age.'

He added he believes it will mainly be made of hydrogen and helium, with an atmosphere like Jupiter's, with spots and rings and clouds, adding: 'You'd also expect it to have moons. All the outer planets have them.'

He believes the planet is so huge, it will ahve a raised temperature left from its formation that will make it far higher than others, such as Pluto, at -73C, as 'it takes an object this size a long time to cool off'.

He and Prof Matese first suggested Tyche existed because of the angle comets were arriving, with a fifth of the expected number since 1898 entering higher than expected.

However, Tyche - if it exists - should also dislodge comets closer to home, from the inner Oort Cloud, but they have not been seen.

If confirmed, the status and name of the new planet - which would become the ninth and potentially the largest - would then have to be agreed by the International Astronomical Union.

Currently named Tyche, from the Greek goddess that governed the destiny of a city, its name may have to change, as it originated from a theory which has now been largely abandoned.

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