Elusive Planet Nine could be an alternative form of gravity masquerading as a planet, study claims

 

Image courtecy: Shutterstock

Joel Kontinen

Some astronauts think that the elusive Planet Nine, which is theorized to be lurking somewhere in the outer reaches of the solar system, may not be a planet after all, a new study suggests. Instead, what we assumed to be a massive object could be evidence that gravity doesn't work like we thought it does. But the new theory doesn't sit well with everyone.

“The Planet Nine hypothesis, first proposed in 2016, argues that the unusual orbits of objects in the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune, which seem to be being pulled away from the sun, can be explained by the presence of an undiscovered ninth planet up to 10 times more massive than Earth. Astronomers have been looking for Planet Nine ever since. However, despite searching almost half of the night sky, they have so far come up empty-handed. “   

Source: 

Harry Baker 2023.

 October 16, Elusive Planet Nine could be an alternative form of gravity masquerading as a planet, study claims | Live Science

The dwarf planet Quaoar has a weird system of debris around it

 

Image courtesy of Andamati/Shutterstock. 

Joel Kontinen 

The universe of full of surprises. The dwarf planet planet Quaoar which is beyond Neptune in our solar system, appears to have a ring of debris around it that is much further out than was thought possible.

Now, every ring or orbiting moon observed has obeyed a limit put forward by astronomer Édouard Roche in 1848 The universe that relates to its distance from a parent body.  

If an object is below the Roche limit, Its parent body’s gravity rips apart the orbiting object into a collection of smaller chunks which eventually form a ring, like those seen around Saturn. Outside that limit, dust and debris should coalesce to form larger objects, such as moon.

Source:  

Wilkins , Alex, 2023. Dwarf planet Quaoar has a weirdly big ring of debris encircling it, New  Scientist. 8 February.  

Hayabusa 2 has brought back gases from an asteroid for the first time

 

Image courtesy of JAXA, University of Tokyo & collaborators. 

Joel Kontinen

 

Darwinists suppose that Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft will reveal the asteroid’s history and may help them reconstruct the evolution of the solar system. it may help them know how and where the asteroid – and other objects in thesolar system – formed.

Here is how new scientist explains how it was formed:

“Ryugu was most likely formed toward the edges of our solar system before the migration of the giant planets flung it towards Earth. A new analysis of the iron in the samples shows that it may have come from even further out than researchers realised, near Uranus and Neptune, so these samples may help illuminate the history of the outer solar system.”

Source :

Crane,  Leah. 2022. Hayabusa 2 has brought back gases from an asteroid for the first time.  New Scientist. 20 October

Uranus and Neptune may have a constant rain of diamonds

 

Image courtesy of Greg Stewart/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

Joel Kontinen

Uranus, and Neptune may have a constant rain of diamonds. Uranus and Neptune are made mostly of water, ammonia and methane, so that the rain is not water.

But that does not endure liFe.

“The carbon then finds its brethren, forming long chains. The long chains then squeeze together to form crystalline patterns like diamonds.”

On the planets, the diamonds could presumably grow to be a lot larger than nano-sized.

“The dense diamond formations then drop through the layers of the mantle until it gets too hot, where they vaporize and float back up and repeat the cycle — hence the term ‘diamond rain’ ”

Source:

Sutter, Paul, 2022,  'Diamond rain' on Uranus and Neptune seems likely. Live Science, 11 January,

Water On Uranus And Neptune Does Not Look Like Water On Earth

Image courtesy of  Federico Grassell

e courtesy of  Federico Grassell

Joel Kontinen 

Researchers are investigating an alien version of water inside the strange, icy interiors of  Uranus and Neptune. In a new study, scientists have devised a theoretical computer model and used it to peer inside the ice giants Uranus and Neptune. With this tool, the team studied the thermal and electrical conductivity of the unusual water inside of these planets. In simulating these physical processes on the teeny-tiny atomic scale, the researchers hope that this new model will reveal information about the icy bodies' internal structure, magnetic fields, how they evolved and exactly how old they are. The team looked at three different phases of water that could exist in these planets interiors: ice, liquid and superionic (superionic water exists at extremely high temperatures and pressures.) But, as the researchers explained in the statement, water on (and inside of) an alien planet is far different from water on Earth/ 

The study did not give hints of the ago of the gas planets, which is taught to be 13.8 million years, and life is taught to be living on the icy moons.

 "In such exotic physical conditions, we cannot think of ice as we are used to," SISSA professors and study co-authors Federico Grasselli and Stefano Baroni said in the statement. 

Source: 

 Gohd, Chelsea, 2020. Scientists probe the weird, alien water inside of Uranus and Neptune. Space. com 14 August

Neptune’s Moon Triton Looks Young, Too

Image courtesy of NASA / Jet Propulsion Lab, public domain.



Joel Kontinen

Nowadays, the planets and their moons surrounding the Sun all seem to be very much less than the 4.5 billion years assigned for them on the scale that most scientist use to compute the age of them.

Now, this tendency has also reached Neptune's moon triton. A recent article in Phys.org about the moon says:

“Astronomers using the Gemini Observatory explore Neptune's largest moon Triton and observe, for the first time beyond the lab, an extraordinary union between carbon monoxide and nitrogen ices. The discovery offers insights into how this volatile mixture can transport material across the moon's surface via geysers, trigger seasonal atmospheric changes, and provide a context for conditions on other distant, icy worlds.

Extreme conditions can produce extreme results. In this case, it's the uncommon pairing of two common molecules—carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen (N2)—frozen as solid ices on Neptune's frigid moon Triton.

It is the only large moon in the Solar System that orbits ‘backwards’ or in the opposite direction to its planet's rotation. The peculiar motion suggests that Triton is a captured trans-Neptunian object from the Kuiper Belt—a region of leftovers from the Solar System's early history, which is why it shares several features with the dwarf planet Pluto and Eris: size (roughly two-thirds that of our Moon), and surface temperatures that hover near absolute zero; so low that common compounds we know as gases on Earth freeze into ices.”

The article does not say who old Triton is, but it only states that the two molecules – carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen (N2). – are frozen on the moon.

Even Pluto and Erin and Makemake are also young.

Moreover, a dwarf planet orbiting the sun some 2 billion kilometres beyond Pluto would have a ring that suggests young age.

And, Ultima Thule also looks youthful.

Source:

Gemini Observatory, 2019, Neptune's moon Triton fosters rare icy union. Phys.org. (22 May).