For most of human history, we could only see six planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The two most distant planets, Uranus and Neptune, were too far away for early civilizations to see without a telescope. Uranus was the first planet discovered with a telescope. In 1781, astronomer William Herschel discovered Uranus with a telescope. The discovery of Uranus inevitably led to the discovery of Neptune. Uranus’ orbit was complex for astronomers to explain, and there were slight changes in it that could not be explained by the mass of Uranus and other gas giants. To explain Uranus’ orbit, astronomers predicted the existence of another planet orbiting the Sun beyond Uranus. Neptune was first observed in 1846, confirming earlier predictions of its existence. This makes Neptune the only planet discovered with the help of mathematics. With Uranus and Neptune, the solar system is expanding to include eight planets. However, the story is not over.
The ninth planet
Neptune, seen from the surface of his moon Triton
Like Uranus, Neptune’s orbit was slightly irregular. Given the calculated masses of Neptune and the other gas giants, the rotation of Neptune made no sense. Astronomers have predicted that another planet must exist beyond the orbit of Neptune. For decades, astronomers have been exploring the night sky in search of the ninth planet. Then, in 1930, astronomer Clyde Tombo discovered what was considered the ninth planet. Not only was it far beyond Neptune, but it was also very close to the intended position on the ninth planet. It’s called Pluto, and again the family of planets in the solar system is growing. But Pluto’s story is far from over. As it turns out, Pluto was too small to explain the irregularities in Neptune’s orbit. Instead, Pluto may have been considered a planet, but its discovery was a complete success. When the Voyager 2 spacecraft completed its flight over Neptune in 1989, it was revealed that the mass of Neptune was different from that calculated by astronomers. Once Neptune’s correct mass was determined, its orbit was no longer uneven. However, Pluto will still be considered a planet until it is redefined as a dwarf planet in 2006. For the first time, the number of planets in the solar system has shrunk.
Has the solar system always had eight planets?
The eight planets in our solar system aligned around the Sun.
Today, the solar system contains eight planets. However, this has not always been the case. Shortly after the Sun formed and the planets began to form, a hundred or more planets probably formed around the Sun. The early solar system existed in a state of complete chaos. The gravitational pull of so many planets has made it difficult for them to find stable orbits. Instead, the planets pull toward each other and sometimes cross orbits. Sometimes whole planets collide. Depending on the mass of the planets and the angle at which the collision occurred, the larger planet will either swallow the smaller planet or both will disintegrate. It is generally believed that each planet in the solar system has suffered one or more collisions with other planets. Even the Earth experienced a planetary collision about 4.5 billion years ago. A Mars-sized planet called Thea collided with Earth at just the right angle, so instead of the two planets disintegrating, the young Earth engulfed Thea and the debris from the collision continued to form the Earth’s moon.
The return of planet nine
The most accurate image of Pluto taken by NASA’s New Horizon spacecraft in 2015.
With the fall of Pluto, many thought the idea of a ninth planet in the solar system was dead. However, over the past decade, evidence from observations has hinted at the existence of another planet far beyond Neptune’s orbit. In the far outer regions of the solar system, there are countless comets, miklky w and other forms of planetary debris in an area called the Kuiper Belt. While tracking the orbital path of some objects in the Kuiper Belt (KBO), astronomers discovered some irregularities in their orbits. If a planet approximately 10 times the size of Earth existed in the Kuiper Belt, this would explain the anomalies observed in these orbits. If this hypothetical planet nine exists, it will orbit the Sun approximately 400 times farther than the Earth orbits the Sun. It will take nine thousand years for the planet to complete an orbit around the Sun. So far, astronomers have not found conclusive evidence that planet nine exists.
It may seem strange that it is difficult to find a planet in our solar system. After all, scientists have discovered thousands of planets outside the solar system, so why is it so difficult to find one in the solar system? Unfortunately for scientists, finding Planet Nine is not an easy task, if it exists at all. Instead of looking inward and using things like the gravity of a star or light to discover a planet, scientists are looking out, trying to observe a planet that will receive virtually no sunlight. Planet Nine would also emit little or no heat, making it extremely difficult to observe at other wavelengths of light.
If there is a ninth planet in the solar system in the Kuiper belt, it is unlikely that it formed so far from the Sun. Instead, it would form much closer and be pushed out by other gas giants and planetary collisions. Perhaps a more intriguing hypothesis is that Planet Nine never actually formed in our solar system. It may have formed in a different solar system in the Milky Way, eventually being captured by solar gravity. This may seem strange, but one star can catch other planets. During the formation of the solar system, several planets can be ejected beyond the star’s gravity, becoming what are known as rogue planets. Some cheating planets may end up close enough to another star to be caught by its gravity. The search for Planet Nine continues, and if it exists, its discovery will be one of the most significant discoveries in the history of our solar system. So far, the solar system still contains eight planets.
Aiden Remple May 2, 2022 at Science
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