A very large study conducted using the WISE Infrared Space Telescope (Wide-Angle Infrared Survey Explorer) has never been able to find signals and signs of "Planet X", a mystical space object that many people on our planet find somewhere inside our Solar System. . The space telescope studied millions of different objects of our cosmos, but could not find at least some traces of this planet.
Among the various theories, the mystical planet X is also called Tyuhe, Nibiru and Nemesis. Theories suggest that the planet is located somewhere in the Kuiper belt on the edge of our system, located beyond the orbit of Pluto. Proponents of this theory argue that this object is quite large in size, possibly commensurate with a gas or ice giant, and perhaps even larger than Jupiter.
As part of a new study, astronomers studied a giant database with information gathered as a result of two complete observations of the night sky. As a result, scientists have concluded that within a radius of 10,000 astronomical units (distances equal to the distance from Earth to the Sun) from the Sun, there are no objects the size of Saturn. In addition, scientists have once again determined that within a radius of less than 26 thousand astronomical units from the Sun, there are also no planets the size of Jupiter.
For comparison, scientists note that the Earth is located in 1 astronomical unit from the star, whereas Pluto is located in about 40 astronomical units. At the same time, one astronomical unit is about 157 million kilometers. If some mystical gas or ice giant really existed within our solar system, WISE, without any doubt, could find it.
“We didn’t find anything because there really isn’t any big gas giant in the outer region of the Solar System, much less a related small star,” explains astronomer Kevin Lüman, who is an expert at the Center for Searching for and Examining Exoplanets and Potentially Livenable Worlds of the state of Pennsylvania.
Luman is also the author of a published work in one of the latest issues of the scientific journal Astrophysical Journal, which describes this study. The astronomer reports that in this study, WISE even managed to discover several new stars and gray dwarfs, which are very close to our solar system, but could not find something new inside the system.
“In the study of the data collected by WISE, new neighboring star systems were discovered, which until this moment were hidden from our direct view,” adds the words of his colleague Ned Wright of the University of California at Los Angeles. The astronomer said that now WISE is in sleep mode, after its work between 2010 and mid-2011.
Planet X is still nothing more than an interesting concept. Some conspiracy theories claim that this object is responsible for one (or even more) mass extinctions on Earth. And although this theory was completely crushed and rejected before the new research was conducted, the scientists were once again able to prove that such a theory is nothing more than absurd.
Be that as it may, astronomers continue to use data collected by WISE to detect new stars near our solar system.
“We believe that somewhere there is a huge number of stars that we can definitely find thanks to the information obtained by the WISE telescope. In fact, we are not as aware of what is on the outskirts of the solar system as you might think, ”Wright concluded.
The article is based on materials .
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