Are We Close to Finding Planet 9?

[@astrumspace]

So I can't promise I'll do the tutorial unless there is interest, but even if I do but you can't wait, here's the Zooniverse citizen science project: www.zooniverse.org/projects/marckuchner/backyard-worlds-planet-9

[@andreferreira9853]

Please do the tutorial!!!!! And also, dude, keep up the good work. This is my favorite channel from KZbin. Greetings from Brazil!

[@momallanimal2449]

I remember there was a kind of short tutorial on the site when I began participating a few years ago, but it was a bit rudimentary : in some cases, it was hard to decide if we had to signal the case, even if it was possible to ask other participants their opinion... In short, I'm sure a good tutorial would be very helpfull, especially for (potential) beginners ... and for special, exotic objects... Fan Greetings from France.

[@GladDestronger]

we'll gonna have to come up with a different rhyme for... until planet 9 is officially discovered. I emailed Nasa with the name Proserpina (Goddess of the Underworld). mostly so the saying still works (plus another planet named after a goddess so Venus isn't alone anymore).

[@Helskorn]

I'd love to see a tutorial on this!

[@jasonrenard798]

It'd be really cool to see you make a tutorial for anything, really! I could totally see myself relaxing over picking out star photos.

[@darlingicarus]

no matter how many times I hear the story of Neptune's discovery it doesn't get any less fantastic. to be able to predict something's existence simply because of an incongruence in another body's movement, and for the maths to be so precise? incredible! if Planet X does actually exist I really hope I'm around to hear about its discovery :)

[@lightyagami3492]

@BeBeingBenMesa Its kinda crazy that we found Uranus and Neptune hundreds of years before we realized what it was we were looking at.

[@oron61]

There was also a planet Vulcan mathematically predicted to be between Mercury and the Sun. No one could kill its gravity field's presence until Professor Einstein explained the anomaly.

[@bglrj]

That's Planet IX...😆

[@BernardWilkinson]

This is precisely why Maths is so important.

[@Brainsore.]

@@BernardWilkinson math* ;)

[@UnclePie-]

New Horizons, the only probe sent to explore a planet that was no longer a planet by the time it got there.

[@luke_fabis]

Pluto is still there, unchanged, orbiting like it has been. Stars, planets, and dwarf planets aren't "real". They're just categories of bodies that have a certain set of features in common with each other, and the lines between these categories are extremely fuzzy and debatable. They're only there as a means to help scientists organize their knowledge about the universe. But they're artificial; nature doesn't care.

[@offspringfan89]

Kinda sad.

[@phaedrus000]

It was also the only probe to investigate an object that had not yet been discovered at the time of its launch. After its flyby of the Pluto system, New Horizons did a flyby of Arrakoth (previously known as Ultima Thule), an object in the Kuiper belt that was discovered with Hubble after New Horizons was launched. Granted, they were using Hubble specifically to try to find a new target for New Horizons. It's not like Ultima Thule was discovered coincidentally and NASA was like "hell we already got a probe out there, let's make a detour." It was a contrived series of events, but still a neat factoid.

[@UnclePie-]

@@phaedrus000 indeed, awesome seeing a Kuiper Belt object like that up close 👍

[@UnclePie-]

@@offspringfan89 Pluto will always remain a planet in my heart ♥️

[@TheNuclearGeek]

The cautionary tale of "Vulcan" should be mentioned with this however. The idea that math was so precise that it could be used to predict a planet due to perturbations within a planets orbit, it convinced a great many scientists that there was in fact a planet within the orbit of Mercury. Of course we now know there is no planet "Vulcan" (within our solar system at least!) and Mercury's orbit was explained through Einstein's determination of how gravity truly works within space-time.

[@vuchaser99]

Isn't that why Lowell called the next planet X? There was solid science consensus at thr turn of the 1900s of Vulcan as wall as a society on Mars. Science consensus... actually an oxymoron.

[@TheNuclearGeek]

@@vuchaser99 Well, it usually comes down to people misinterpreting the scientific method. People make a theory and try to prove it, when the actual scientific method is to make a theory and try to DISPROVE it. A scientist should never BELIEVE they are right, they should think of ways they are wrong and investigate those possibilities.

[@BladeOfLight16]

"truly" Not your finest choice of words. ;) We know that relativity cannot be a complete description because of quantum and the problems with trying to combine the two. "More accurate" would be a better phrase there. It's important to realize that the mathematical quantities we use in our models don't necessarily correspond to some kind of fundamental physical property. The notion of "force" that was so fundamental to Newtonian mechanics is now virtually discarded in the more updated theories; other concepts have taken its place as more fundamental and central. And getting beyond Newtonian mechanics required introducing completely new ways of understanding how objects interact and discarding ideas that we thought we fundamental. We have no idea what new concepts the next more accurate model will introduce or what old mainstays it will discard. Really disappointing that Astrum didn't cover Vulcan.

[@leMiG31]

There is vulcan Theres an object that is the size of a dwarf planet hitting mercury Name it vulcan and voila!!

[@TheAnimewolfchick]

@@leMiG31 do you mean a dwarf planet hit it in the past? Like the Gaia-Earth theory?

[@bloodyneptune]

Pluto didnt lose planet status in our hearts

[@kennyfrykberg9352]

👍🏼

[@BearNCessities]

I lost my "When I Was Your Age, Pluto Was a Planet" shirt, but not my love of the planet ❤️

[@valentinaselektrikas]

Why?

[@elmurcis1]

Yeah, Pluto did nothing wrong just was around wrong neighbourhood where even one or two of official planets would have hard time meeting same criteria to be planet.

[@AndrasMihalyi]

so you are emotionally attached to an icy rock... 🤦‍♂

[@girlbuu9403]

Fun fact: The planets were called "wandering stars" at various points in history because unlike other stars they would move around the night sky. Various cultures believed they were the homes of or outright were gods. It is one reason they are named the way they are.

[@rosengrenj9]

The word Planet is actually derived from the Greek word for “wanderer”

[@hydra7427]

@@rosengrenj9 The term is actually Egyptian. Black astronomers were the first to realize the Planets were not stars.

[@LoganHunter82]

Wandering star... Thanks. Now I'm hearing that song in my head

[@BasePuma4007]

One of the coolest ideas (and most terrifying, I guess) I have heard about planet 9 is that it is not a planet that we haven't observed, but rather a primordial black hole. These are very small black holes that are predicted to possibly exist with our current understanding of astrophysics. Crazy thing is, if they do exist, they would be completely undetectable due to only having diameters in the range of an average apple or human fist... It probably isn't a black hole, but again, we do not know if these exist or not.

[@VestedUTuber]

It wouldn't be impossible to detect, just STUPIDLY difficult. You'd be looking for a trail of very small microlensing events happening at a speed and trajectory that would suggest that the object causing them would be gravitationally bound to the solar system. Ideally this would include a microlensing event in front of one or more trans-Neptunian objects, which would confirm that the object causing them is within the solar system..

[@abloogywoogywoo]

@@VestedUTuber You are looking for a bowling ball-sized object hundreds of AU out in the void of space that is inactive, inert... argh... good luck finding it.

[@abloogywoogywoo]

Its possible, and may explain why our solar system is unique and at a tilt. It was influenced by a primordial black hole, though how the Sun and PBH9 came into orbit is unclear...

[@VestedUTuber]

@@abloogywoogywoo "You are looking for a bowling ball-sized object hundreds of AU out in the void of space that is inactive, inert... argh... good luck finding it." Baseball sized, actually. ^w^

[@rogerphelps9939]

Wrong. Such a small black hole would have strong Hawking radiation that could be detected. Furthermore it would be actively brightening.

[@TieTheFox]

I really like how you briefly introduced the viewers to the topic. How the planets were found, what methods were used and to what accuracy, which later gave a perfect context for the rest of the video to show how weird it is for us not to spot such object or predict it in any way shape or form. Personally I want to believe something is out there, it would be amazing to find a new planet! So I stay neutral in the discussion of Planet Nine but Im still interested in the process and I hope the scientists will find something. How exciting would THAT be?! Great video! :3

[@randomorange6807]

Briefly?

[@RadeticDaniel]

​@@randomorange6807 yes, it takes years to truly learn the details and at least a semester to get started on studying the subject at any depth. So a five minutes head start is pretty much the definition of a brief explanation

[@harrywalker5836]

heres some real vids,,not this sht..revalation of the pyramids. viper tv, sumerian tablets. praveen mohan. brian foerster,paracus. the facts by how to hunt. everything inside me... have fun with real,,reality..

[@aaaaaa8656]

@@randomorange6807 This is your brain on tiktok

[@randomorange6807]

@@aaaaaa8656 I don't have tiktok

[@witchdoctor6502]

Personally I hope Planet 9 exists just because it would be cool to have such a distant extreme planet in the sol system and maybe one of the agencies will decide to send a probe so far out

[@titan-1802]

and it would be a huge discovery of finding a final Planet to end off the Solar System. as of in, the last of the Planets in the Solar System, not literately destroying it.

[@edgregory1]

Took new horizons 9 years to get to Pluto, so minimum time would be ~100 years using Jovian assist method.

[@yummysatay]

@@edgregory1 When Planet 9 is discovered, Breakthrough Starshot could test their lightsail probes by sending them in that direction. At 215million km/hr, it would zip by in less than a year. If I am Elon Musk, I will create a division to design/test a bunch of propulsion system (including lightsail) that launch from space stations. That's the way to get these things going.

[@Deleted_user6969]

But it might not exist

[@nicholashylton6857]

And it would give our solar system the mini-Neptune/super-Earth that seems so common in other exoplanet systems.

[@BOTA099]

It seems we are actually getting close to NOT finding a planet 9 honestly.

[@jolness1]

For those wondering why the telescope is named after a car brand, Subaru is what the Japanese call the Pleiades (and also why Subaru’s logo is 6 stars) Just a random chunk of trivia I know and figured I’d share because if I didn’t I’d be wondering why a car company had a telescope haha.

[@SahilP2648]

I am gonna name a star that I find as Apple lol

[@mas0nit3]

thank the gods no one has named a vehicle or anything from the 7th planet ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[@ptero93]

I know this because of anime lmao

[@Legio__X]

Cool I didn’t know that. Thanks

[@smlanka4u]

The speed of the sun likely impacted the orbit of the planets and moved them to one side. However, the Planet nine could cause to accelerate that process. If the Planet nice doesn't exist or is very small, it challenges the theory of general relativity a lot. I think, gravity depends on gravitons that relatively move planets to a direction depending on the speed of the sun, rather depending on an uniform curvature of space which doesn't change with the speed.

[@robertwren2289]

It's amazing to me just how smart these early astronomers were.

[@sixdfx]

And still they named a planet Uranus

[@choosenone7532]

@@sixdfx ??

[@Patrick-en8uc]

They were no stupider than we are, they just didn't have what we have now to aid us.

[@harrywalker5836]

they were,nt smart, they re discovered what was lost, or found lost evidence of there existance.. seeing theres star charts painted & stone reliefed, in ancient temples. ever watched prometheus.?. that,,is a tru movie, of our past..

[@steezyonyoutube9896]

They didn’t have light pollution it’s pretty easy to see these things when you can actually see the sky. The planets are bright af and you can easily see that they moved from night to night

[@raphaelandrews3617]

than you Alex for your excellent explanation about the solar system, I have love astronomy since I was six years old ( am now 62 yrs ).

[@Puzzoozoo]

Same, and I'm 66.

[@Sugi-4]

You guys really passionate ❤

[@colmortimer1066]

A small correction. The Babylonians did not determine which objects moved around the Sun. They determined which "stars" were moving irregularly. It was quite some time before people figured out that they were planets, and not just weird stars. It's actually quite easy to look at the sky every night and see every star in the same place as every other night except for a handful.

[@nicholasmaude6906]

IIRC "Planet" is derived from the Greek word meaning "Moving Star".

[@lastbestplace8112]

I think I'd believe Astrum over a YT comment...

[@remicaron3191]

It sure isn't easy these days we have destroyed our skies more than we've destroyed the biosphere and our climate with light pollution. I'm lucky to see a few hundred stars at night from home and maybe a few thousands if I try to find some dark sky. It's a crime against humanity so that more of us turn into the almighty consumers the few need to live as minor gods on Earth.

[@RGC-gn2nm]

Something is out there. Perhaps another Keiper Belt

[@jayecurry1369]

You're wrong. The Babylonians did figure out "what celestrial objects were moving around the solar system".

[@accountthatillusetocomment3041]

the real prize for finding planet 9 is the friends we made along the way. thanks to all the asteroids and baby planets we found for continuing helping us even today.

[@ladymacbethofmtensk896]

And the weird fungus/crab things from there hiding out in the more isolated parts of rural Vermont...IÄ! SHUB-NIGGURATH, THE BLACK GOAT OF THE WOODS WITH A THOUSAND YOUNG!

[@xendariox2516]

Every time I watch something about the universe, my mind is just blown away. "This topic" is just so fascinating

[@bimblinghill]

I went on Zooniverse to look for planet 9, but I got completely distracted by the Californian burrowing owls project. Those cheeky fluffy little blighters had me hooked!

[@astrumspace]

Zooniverse is surprisingly addictive... I spent a lot of time on the TESS data too when it was up! And looked for zebra on a wildlife cam 😂

[@theglobalspecial9811]

Please do the tutorial! I'm pretty sure thousands of people are similarly interested in this project. Astrophysics is so fascinating!

[@jadeybabes33]

I absolutely adore your videos about how early astronomers found planets and learned about this stuff! Going backwards is so fascinating!

[@danielsousagoncalves7826]

A "tutorial" on the astronomic data hunt would be awesome! Im looking forward for it :) Always wanted to help and actively engage in discoveries/tasks about the night sky

[@aarondavis8943]

The lectures by Brown and Batygin on planet X (9) are quite informative about the way data is collected and analysed. I highly recommend them if you haven't watched them already. They're on you tube.

[@danielsousagoncalves7826]

@@aarondavis8943 Thanks! I'll take a look

[@Meofcourse2319]

I remember in the 5th grade, 2016, we’d get issues of scholastic news. I recall seeing the theory of Planet X on the cover and it always fascinated me. I’m definitely going to assist in the hunt for it. Thanks to Zooniverse

[@timg2727]

God, I'm old. I remember 5th grade too, in 1991. lol

[@Brainsore.]

Lol you say 2016 like it’s a millennium ago

[@LmaoMoni]

YOOO THAT MAKES ME TO HAPOY. Because I was reading the same thing in the same magazine a decade ago❤️

[@MichaelSmith-g6b]

My 5th grade was back in 88! The science books were made with fresh trees, asbestos, lead ink, and had a whole lot of white people in them. Pluto was still a planet, exoplanets weren’t discovered yet, the teachers fought in WW2, and the USSR was hiding around every corner!!😂

[@Starshelle]

Pluto will always be a planet to me. I was so obsessed with the planets when I was a kid, that I had their order memorized before even hearing about the My Very Educated Mother mnemonic device, but I have definitely used mnemonic devices for other things.

[@Aexaol]

"moon is also a planet for me cuz its larger than pluto🤓"

[@greenpumpkin6760]

​@@Aexaolthere's no mention of the moon

[@Aexaol]

@@greenpumpkin6760 its an example.

[@ArtistRathod]

Astrum is the best channel on youtube, it never stops to fascinate me.

[@deltonmcclary7341]

This one and Holchelaga... they're both so addicting!!

[@dan43544911]

Coolworlds is also very nice!

[@harrywalker5836]

watch, revalation of the pyramids..&. viper tv, sumerian tablets..then these vids will be meaningless..

[@hritesh7]

@@harrywalker5836 then why you are here. Oh just to spread negativity.

[@hritesh7]

@@dan43544911 einzelganger, exurb1a, persuit of wonders, aperture, vsauce they are also great.

[@Soonopen1979]

I remember learning about this about five or six years ago. I’m anxious to know what’s really causing the perturbance. Finding a planet that far out is proving to be difficult.

[@UnitSe7en]

There isn't one.

[@gravoc857]

@@UnitSe7en Somethings out there. If it’s not a planet causing these detectable deviations, then what is it?

[@DanSlotea]

@@gravoc857 a tiny black hole

[@Grungerart]

I remember of the hypothesis of a tiny black hole to explain this. If someone has an explanation or a refutation of this I would be interested to hear it :)

[@gwar180]

@@UnitSe7en how do you know?

[@cristencray4049]

I love this comment section. So much good-hearted talk about a ninth planet and primordial black holes, Vulcan and ancient astronomy -- I love it ❤️

[@lizzzzzzzz]

i have been watching your videos since you only had 20k subscribers. so proud of you Alex!! look at all those subs!!!

[@kasimahmed3841]

Congratulations on 1mill subscribers!! Been an amazing journey, much more to come!!!

[@sukidable]

I just love the idea that Planet 9 might be a Primordial Black Hole. That would be incredible if true because then we have a black hole we can feasibly send a probe to.

[@Simon_Jakle__almost_real_name]

That mass of so-called planet nine could be even less dense then some puffy planets, perhaps being a slowly pulsating cloud hardly detectable, not being fallen into itself to had built actual mass as we would define, being to cold to start to stick together, gravity not always being the deepest "force" but that's me speculating. So some gravitational effects would be discoverable in more precision but any visit of that object could turn out similar like the japanese probe (named with five letters) in 1991 or 1992 trespassing a Kordylewski cloud whilst being unable to collect samples of dust. But i don't want to de-fascinate the topic with having added this not so relateable thought. does asteroids (at) home support the topic? What a deeply inspiring well polished assembly of data, Mr. McHogan, chapeau!

[@tommasogubiani3768]

It's an incredibly facinating idea but probably is only an idea because if it was true there'll be enourmous gravitational effects on our solar sisten and on nearby stars and I think we should defenetly had noticed it by now.

[@moltengears7483]

@@tommasogubiani3768 no lmao. Not every black hole is ridiculously massive and strong. If you replace jupiter with a earth size black hole litteraly nothing would happen lol

[@sukidable]

​@@tommasogubiani3768 Actually that does raise a question. A black hole with 5x the mass of Earth would have an event horizon just over 4cm. While that is VERY tiny, tidal forces would still get intense within an earth-circumference around it. Would it be big enough to produce noticeable gravitational lensing in a way that couldn't be reasonably assumed as something else? Otherwise the only way to possibly spot it would be for it to collide with a kuiper belt object and form an accretion disk. even at such a small size THAT should still be noticeable.

[@Nonamelol.]

@@tommasogubiani3768 Not if it’s a grape-sized black hole

[@arnonuehm7005]

A few days ago i had a dream about reading that they found planet nine,i couldnt believe it,so i started searching for it on my phone,just to find out it was real,it was all over the news. Funny you now made a video about planet x ;)

[@llydrsn]

The discovery of Neptune and the competing calculations of the flamboyant prodigy Le Varrier and the humble farm kid John Couch Adams is a fascinating story as well. I've read the book "The Neptune Files" by Tom Standage and it gave me a great appreciation of the abilities of these astronomers! And oh small correction: I believe the guy who tracked the orbit of Uranus was Alexis Bouvard - not Boulevard.

[@BiffMan42]

Fantastic video again! Even though I already knew the story of the discovery of Neptune, your telling of it is the most condensed yet informative version I've ever had. Also, I had no intention this morning of signing up for a year of Brilliant but yet just did. Lol.

[@bodiko23]

I was just watching your videos now when i got this lovely notification of the new video ❤️

[@komiksowy8485]

this thumbnail was amazing!

[@darthsirrius]

I swear a few years ago, they found that in the mathematical calculation of another planet outside of Pluto's orbit was due to a mathematical error in a data sets that had always been used, and as soon as they took that out, all the planets followed Newtonian physics basically perfectly.

[@tresforbe]

eris

[@johnbuchman4854]

Mercury's orbit requires Special Relativity.

[@FSXflyermaster]

Anton Petrov also made a video about that error

[@chekhov4215]

I think that was Mercury, right?

[@unknownstrikex]

Not Pluto, but Mercury. Due to General Relativity, the Sun drags spacetime, causing the orientation of Mercury's orbit to change by 43 arcseconds/century that could not be explained by Newtonian physics. Einstein came along and fixed it.

[@mishkosimonovski23]

Hello Alex, a joy to watch another of your videos.

[@Wesley_H]

If Pluto isn’t a planet because it “hasn’t cleared it’s neighborhood”, then really Jupiter isn’t a planet either. Aside from the mess it left in the asteroid belt, there are also the Trojans.

[@lethalwolf7455]

My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas, was my old go to. When Pluto was demoted I complained to my wife it won’t work anymore. She looked at me for a second and then smiled and said “your very educated mother just served you nachos!” She’s a gem 💎

[@oliviaw.2842]

I hope one day we can change it to My Very Excellent Mother Just Sent Us Nine XYLOPHONES!

[@freddyjosereginomontalvo4667]

Awesome channel with awesome content and great quality as always say 🌍💯🔥

[@michaelbradshaw6567]

I remember watching videos on KZbin when I was maybe 10 or 11, with titles like "Planet X is coming". Of course, I didn't fully understand what they meant, so I thought it was like a roaming planet that scientists found that was coming to swallow the Earth lol. It's nice that I know the full story of its legend so many years later.

[@BiskyYy]

James Webb in a couple of months: "I gotchu fam, give me a sec"

[@alexandrenunesdeoliveira9417]

6:59 - "even after his death, he encouraged others to keep looking for it." - I wonder what his post-mortem methods of encoragement were... 💀

[@jerrylee8261]

1M$ BIG ONES.

[@IAmSneak]

Hauntings

[@ImHeadshotSniper]

@@IAmSneak motivational haunting

[@palwinder_kaler]

Pluto will always be as ninth planet in our hearts.

[@RandomDSdevel_WCFaWF]

I recall somebody doing some calculations to see how probable it'd be for only the objects Brown and Batygan considered to have ended up in those orbita solely by pure random chance, but I can't remember who they were or what their results were.

[@zingodoom]

B&B themselves calculated that it was about a 0.4% that the positions of the significant ETNOs were not clustered

[@JohnDlugosz]

8:07 I've also seen presentation of a paper (I think it was on SETI Seminars) that showed that this crown shape can be caused _without_ another massive planet. Rather, the apogee end of these highly eccentric orbits will attract each other. So what we need to form the observed crown-shaped structure is a few more of those, which (due to observation bias -- astronomers spot the ones that are currently near perigee) most likely exist. The dwarf planet spends most of its time in the extended lobe near the apogee, since it moves slower there and it is larger. This means planets hanging out there will attract each other and torque the orbits as shown. It is 20 other dwarf planets hanging out at the far end of the orbit, not a single massive body, that causes the observed clustering. Now the math shows that this effect _does happen_ . So why don't the Planet 9 people include it in their calculations and conclude that 1 large body or _n_ small bodies or some mixture of medium-sized bodies in this kind of extended orbit would do the trick?

[@TheWoblinGoblin]

It's a conspiracy against you of course. We are all in it. And I am even from Europe!

[@lord0jackostar]

Because the headline reads better. Let’s be honest “Mysterious Planet X Plays Havoc With Our Home”, will attract way more eyeballs than “20 Small Rocks Exist, Solar System Finally Noticed”. My one major gripe with scientific reporting is that the journalists and papers still attempt to inject sexy and/or exciting into news that really doesn’t need the help. As a result, people expect the big headlines and straight answers, science isn’t really allowed to just be awesome as itself.

[@nhn05]

Reading recent comments is a wild rollercoaster ride of emotion.

[@GordonSeal]

I like the theory that planet nine could be a very small black hole in a stable orbit around the sun. It would explain the mass and why it's so hard to spot.

[@Heavensrun]

But how the hell do you explain the formation of a very small black hole in a stable orbit around the Sun?

[@lunaticbz3594]

@@Heavensrun It wouldn't have had to have formed within our solar system just been captured by it. Though what I can't explain would be a planetary mass blackhole as there is no known way for those to occur naturally.

[@The_Tower__]

@@lunaticbz3594 It's possible if it is a primordial black hole, as long as those turn out to actually exist.

[@tradtke101]

@@lunaticbz3594 I think the possibility is a small primordial black hole from the big bang that has radiated away most of its mass.

[@never_forget9431]

@@The_Tower__ If it’s true that would probably mean blackholes are even more common then previously thought?

[@floffycatto6475]

I've wondered for a while if a passing massive object could have perturbed far out orbiting objects in the past, and their orbits have been elongated ever since. Also I'm pretty sure scientists have already pointed out a giant star that will pass close by to our Sun millions of years from now. There's just so many things it could be!

[@unknownstrikex]

Stars that pass by the Solar System usually do so in terms light years, with the closest ones still being tens of thousands of AU away. Their gravity at that distance is too weak to completely shift the orbits of the TNOs that we see. The only objects that these passing stars would influence would be comets in the Oort cloud.

[@davisdf3064]

if i am not wrong, the closest star that has ever passed through the Solar System was Barnard's Star, and it isn't big enough for that

[@unknownstrikex]

Barnard's star will make its closest approach to the Sun in 11,800 AD, and even then it will only be 3.75 LY away, too far to affect anything.

[@jondoc7525]

Effecting comet orbits and sending them towards us from oort cloud isn’t good . Some say we are on the comet side of the galaxy orbit right now . Pluto and Uranus I think do cross orbits every once in awhile . If planet 9 is real the normal planets are sort of in random position every time planet 9 comes back around . This could really screw things up

[@unknownstrikex]

@@jondoc7525 Space is big. Any comets that were disturbed would first have to travel a few million years before they reached the inner solar system. Even if they did, the chance of one impacting Earth is quite low. As for Planet 9, it is too far away to affect anything besides the orbits of TNOs. I don't think many people here understand that gravity gets exponentially weaker with distance. Sagittarius A, the black hole at the center of the Milky Way has a mass of 4 million suns, yet the dominant object in our Solar System is the Sun. Why? Because the Sun is 1 AU away, while Sagittarius A is 1.64e9 AU away.

[@skycloud4802]

If we ever find planet 9, we should call it Pluto as a middle finger to the scientists that demoted the first one.

[@tntrose7285]

Well, Pluto's already taken. Erebus will probably be its name if it's confirmed to exist because it just sounds cool.

[@jeremiasrobinson]

Alex produces better content than big network corporations with enourmous budgets.

[@cinimatics]

Passion makes a huge difference

[@stefanwild326]

I remember the German version of the mnemonic from my childhood :) "Mein Vater erklärt mir jeden Samstag unsere neun Planeten" I never thought about what it might be in other languages

[@Ðez]

Just wanted to point out at 7:30 you said that we still haven't discovered Planet X to account for these oddities in the ice giant's orbits; these irregularities were solved when voyager 1 & 2 came along and gave us more accurate data on the planet's mass which showed that the orbits were completely normal, our data was what was wrong. Love the video though

[@spitfire_0851]

what he was mentioning there was before the discovery of Neptune, also this theory is talking about the orbits of TNO’s

[@kairon156]

Yes Pluto is no longer a full planet but it is still a dwarf planet, so in actuality we have like 13 planets 5 of them being Dwarf planets and 4 being Jovian planets and the other 4 are the inner rocky planets. Though I'm starting to think Mercury should be given it's own classification as a Core Planet as that's all that's left of it.

[@darthsirrius]

Actually if I remember correctly, going by the original definition of having enough gravity to turn it into a spherical body, it's more like 23 planets.

[@JackToTheA1]

There are over 150 possible dwarf planets! Only 5 are officially recognized by the IAU though.

[@zimriel]

ehh Mercury has a regolith / crust, and a fairly thick one. what it doesn't have is a mantle

[@kairon156]

@@zimriel ooh. That makes since now. Thanks for letting me know.

[@kairon156]

@@JackToTheA1 oh wow. I knew there were lots of sizable rocks in our solar system but not that many spherical ones.

[@youtubeconnollyfamily]

My young children and I cannot wait till when James Webb starts putting out unimaginable photos. It’s going to change the way we look into the sky.

[@zimriel]

I don't think JWST is involved in the Planet Nine search however. JWST is going to be pointed at nearby exoplanetary and browndwarf systems like 55 Cancri and Luhman 16.

[@eatingtheleaf4659]

Same! I’m personally very excited for the JWT to discover the atmospheric content of Proxima Centauri B, so that we can determine whether it’s habitable or not.

[@jagaz1239]

@@eatingtheleaf4659 I highly doubt it’s habitable due to large amount of radiation emitted from its host star. But only time will tell. Only a couple more weeks until we see the first pictures!

[@eatingtheleaf4659]

@@jagaz1239 Red dwarfs mostly emit radiation from their poles.

[@Straigo]

3:27 Interestingly, Herschel named it “Georgium Sidus” meaning “George’s Star” or “Star of George” after his patron King George III. It was Johann Bode that later chose the name Uranus.

[@BearNCessities]

Thank you for covering this in such a thorough manner! I am constantly hungering for new information on a variety of topics, and news of Planet X has always made my brain itch in such a pleasant manner. Please keep up the great work! 🖤🐻🧙🏻‍♂️

[@jkdbuck7670]

New Horizons found so many fascinating things on Pluto. At my age, I'm very certain I won't live to see any return mission to learn more.

[@mikec0502]

Great content! I knew all of this but you still had me the entire time! You’re a better story teller than you are a science explainer, and you’re a great science explainer!

[@R0bobb1e]

I vote for the tutorial! I really love your work! Please keep it up!

[@xxrockraiderxx]

I'd love to see more information about all the brown dwarfs and the like which the search for Planet X has incidentally found throughout their search. How many have they found? How far away are these places? Are they a part of their own solar systems or are they far flung exclaves of a much larger star system sort of like how Proxima Centurai is to the Alpha Centurai star system? Would any of these celestial objects be both close enough and interesting enough to potentially send some form of probe to in the next century? There's a lot of different questions that the unintended finding of these objects bring up and it'd be great to get a run down of them.

[@simonmultiverse6349]

It's due to the phenomenon of serendipity - you go looking for gold and, to your great surprise, you discover oil.

[@xygomorphic44]

I learned it as "My very educated mother just served us nine pizzas." Then it became "My very educated mother just served us nachos."

[@kryts27]

Zooniverse would be interesting. You forgot to mention that many stars close to Sol are in high relative motion to it, including dozens of red dwarf stars plus binary and triplet stars (Alpha Centauri is a triplet star, which is obvious, but suppose two or more red dwarfs are orbiting each other and so on). Plus all the millions of Kuiper Belt icy asteriod sized objects beyond Neptune (which Pluto is one, Eris is another) This adds to the complications of finding planet X.

[@catjudo1]

I want to see an Ed Wood style movie on Planet X... Planet 9 from Outer Space! It orbits in the dark... but soon it will come to the light!

[@TheCellsAreDead]

1:55 oh my how i love that scenerey with the night sky and a somewhat lit desert with a ancient building and some palm trees next to a oasis i belive

[@aarondavis8943]

I have found the counter arguments (if you can even call them some of them "arguments") quite unconvincing. Firstly, it is not "easy" to spot and track even largish objects at distances of 500+ AUs, especially when you don't know *where* on their orbital path they happen to be. It's a monumentally large amount of sky to sift through. Planet X could be as far as 1000 AUs (I'm not sure where your lower figures come from; perhaps more recent data) Secondly, the argument "then why haven't you found it yet" is not an argument, for reasons laid out in my first point. This would be like arguing back in the day that "Uranus and Neptune don't exist because why haven't you found them yet?" It would be more sensible to say "I will reserve judgement until an affective search method has either discovered or ruled out (to a convincing degree) planet 9". *Certainty based on a lack of evidence is utterly unscientific* I believe the modelling and tracking data of perturbed KBOs quite convincing; whether it's 99% convincing? In any case, the counter arguments *are* weak.

[@raidarcade791]

Mate.. your first "unconvincing" argument also works against the 14 objects that were discovered as "bunched". If you claim it's so hard to track those objects, then it applies to those 14 as well. What is the argument then that this planet exists?

[@avinashreji60]

@@raidarcade791 Those objects have elongated orbits that pass much closer to the sun making them easier to see

[@theunknownone_]

I believe Planet X does exist, and here's why: When models were being made to show how our solar system ended up the way it is, the only way the researchers could get our current solar system as an outcome is if a planet bigger than Earth but smaller than Neptune got ejected as Jupiter moved through our solar system in the early days. My theory is that that ejected planet wasn't fully ejected, but rather thrown out to the farthest reaches of our solar system.

[@thereaction18]

The world's supply of Eludium Phosdex, the shaving cream atom, is alarmingly low. Now we have reason to believe the only remaining source is on Planet X.

[@7stiano123]

Sadly it doesn't exist

[@johnnyhunter]

@@7stiano123 Oh, ok then. "Hey everyone, random KZbin user 7stiano says it doesn't exist so, that's it, I'm afraid. Shut down the scopes and pack it up. We've got definitive proof now!"

[@cosmicHalArizona]

Maybe. Sometimes the math could be faulty.

[@isee1158]

@@7stiano123 That's a bold statement to make without any supporting claims or evidence of any kind. There's a very good chance it DOES exist. Before Neptune's official discovery when it's existence was still speculative, don't you think there were probably people saying "Sadly, it doesn't exist." Only to be proven wrong shortly after?

[@csabalaczo2307]

It is possible that the observed long-period objects are traces of the gravitational influence of a stray planet that visited the Solar System millions of years ago. The induced orbital changes are preserved, and the wandering planet can already travel far.

[@JK-dv3qe]

Planet 9 will always be Pluto for me 💖 LOVE YA, PLUTO, HAVE MY HEART!

[@MikuFan3931]

For me, Pluto is still planet 9.

[@SapoOreo]

2:30 i love how most of the planets are bigger than the sun

[@bernddasbrot7244]

2:37 that looks so weird with a small sun and the other planets in more realistic sizes :D

[@fridaynightfunkinfan5627]

If the Kuiper Belt’s thickness measures 10 AU, and Planet #9(whatever we’re going to name it)takes 10K years to complete an orbit, would you think it orbits on the outside of the Kuiper Belt?

[@elliotmann9787]

We all know that Pluto was discovered as a planet back in the 1930's. It will always be a planet to me.

[@krns1695]

Quick fact check for 3:35 Oranos was the father of Cronus ( titan ) not Kronos ( Saturn )

[@zimriel]

same dude

[@deletelater3484]

they're the same person, just spelled differently. saturn is the roman version of cronus / kronos

[@dragonrykr]

Pluto will always be Planet Nine for me.

[@titan9259]

That would make Eris planet 10

[@tihzho]

Aside from your interesting videos, you have a wonderful speaking voice that's pleasant to hear.

[@crosisofborg5524]

They’re deciding on new parameters for defining a planet. The parameters they are considering would make Pluto a planet again.

[@titan-1802]

Considerably, i don't think having Pluto as a Planet would be... controversial and.. quite of a Mess, because 150 Planets (yes they're counting the Moons).. 150 is just... way too many.

[@jesusramirezromo2037]

It won't, adding pluto would mean adding about 8 more planets

[@catpoke9557]

@@titan-1802 Doesn't matter. Used to we thought our sun was the only 'sun.' Now we know every star in the sky is a sun. That's way more complexity than a few hundred extra planets. Science doesn't really care if something hurts our brains or not. It only cares if it's true.

[@sonnydey]

I do agree that finding planet x would be very challenging, but I think what would be even much more challenging to spot if the "planet x" was really be a mini blackhole.

[@456MrPeople]

A small black hole of that size would give off measurable Hawking radiation. Of course it's possible we just haven't scanned that area of the sky yet or it blends in with the CMB, but smaller black holes are technically hotter than larger ones and so give off more detectable radiation.

[@Sacto1654]

One other possibility: a very faint brown dwarf star.

[@456MrPeople]

The smallest brown dwarfs are around 13 times the mass of Jupiter. The gravitational effect that would have would be enormous and easily detectible.

[@Релёкс84]

While it cannot be completely ruled out yet, it is absolutely ludicrus. It's far more likely that aliens stop by every so often to move asteroids around when we're not looking.

[@Релёкс84]

@@456MrPeople With an equivalent temperature of 0.004K, it won't be anywhere close to detectable in a loooooong time. Having ideas is nice but sometimes you gotta get down to Earth and actually look at what you're talking about.

[@doylebrockman8225]

Not in our next zillions of years. Fascinating, but, curiosity in this subject is mind-blowing.

[@pbrunet44]

Extra fun fact: Since Neptune was discovered with math, some scientists tried to discover a planet closer to the sun than Mercury, called Vulcan. There were even lots of misattributed sightings of Vulcan. The Newtonian math supposedly called for the new planet, but it wasn't accurate. When we got Einstein's Relativity, we were able to solve the math without the need for Vulcan.

[@mymo_in_Bb]

For people who are interested, there's a great video by Zepherus on the topic

[@Sacto1654]

Well, we now have an instrument in space that might finally (fingers crossed!) find the elusive _Planet X_ : the James Webb Space Telescope. Free of the refractive effects of the Earth's atmosphere and able to see the in the infrared range, it might just find it with the next ten years.

[@ltankk]

Pluto will forever Planet 9 in our hearts

[@An0nim0u5]

Tutorial please. Although it's fun to learn it yourself by trial and error but it will be helpful to know what to do and not to do. Otherwise, we might get overexcited about finding something more mundane than Planet X.

[@wonder_platypus8337]

What are you asking?

[@An0nim0u5]

@@wonder_platypus8337 He asked if we would like a tutorial on Zooniverse for planet hunting.

[@1legend517]

Nothing mundane about finding a large undiscovered and previously unknown planet hiding at the edge of our very solar system. How's that not exciting?

[@An0nim0u5]

@@1legend517 I should have phrased it right but what I meant was that we should know what we're doing while planet hunting otherwise we might end up getting overexcited about our discovery that is NOT a Planet 9 and just something more mundane like an asteroid etc. This is the reason why I requested Astrum to do a tutorial of Zooniverse for us laymen to become a part of all this exciting stuff.

[@1legend517]

@@An0nim0u5 Ahhh ok now I understand, thanks. Yeah I agree actually. That would be interesting to be able to help with these discoveries.

[@robsherwood5934]

No, we are not. We ALREADY HAVE A PLANET 9 (and 10 through 14). Adding the adjective "dwarf" does not negate the noun "planet".

[@Jellyman1129]

Thank you, glad somebody gets it! Apparently Caltech professors can’t count.

[@the10thplague]

I like the hypothesis that planet 9 is a primordial black hole. Its radius would be so small as to be basically unspottable until one is very, very close.

[@differous01]

Pluto is still a planet, but if the sub-category of dwarf planet hadn't been created planet 'nine' would have a much higher (and less significant) number.

[@Jellyman1129]

Dwarf planets are a category of planet, but apparently SOME people can’t count! Planet 9 is actually Planet 27 or something. 🙄

[@freddyjosereginomontalvo4667]

Oh no Oh no no Don't dare you scientist to hurt pluto my poor boy like that. He is and he always be the nine planet. His little size doesn't mean that you can bully him like that.

[@titan-1802]

pov: Pluto probably hates us for calling him a Planet for over about 16 Years.

[@Nodnarbanator]

How can’t we find a planet in our solar system, but the Webb telescope can see galaxies trillions of years away?

[@miedzianytv8987]

Billions* its hard to find something specific, from this distance planet X cant be seen by naked eye, so its hard to find it when we dont know exactly where it is. We can observe it, but we dont know where to look

[@0ktober]

Spoiler: It's a mass relay, humans will find it in 2149.

[@TerrenceTalking]

😂

[@NR-fg2qc]

About 25 years ago my year 2 teacher told us there might be an unknown planet X floating about the solar system. I'm looking forward to the day when I can say 'yes, you're right about that Mr Robertson'.

[@harrywalker5836]

viper tv, sumerian tablets..explains, they are our creators, they have a window, to come here, it comes around every 3.600 yrs..they mines gold, minerals, to protect them from there suns radiation..500,000 yrs ago...

[@easye4741]

If Planet X is real I hope it is named Kronos or Zeno

[@saladinbob]

I'm sure we'll find Planet X by the 21st and a half Century.

[@1legend517]

It has to be out there somewhere. The biggest problem is in finding it.

[@glennbabic5954]

The astronomers only get telescope time to look in one part of the sky, but if they looked elsewhere they'd discover TNOs in every direction. There's no clumping, it's observational bias. The eccentric orbits are probably all around the sun and caused by passing stars.

[@Jellyman1129]

This guy gets it. Glad someone is looking at the data instead of trying to egotistically replace Pluto.

[@lunaticbz3594]

This is why I've been saying we should use telescopes during the day time, not just late at night. /s

[@glennbabic5954]

@@lunaticbz3594 I think it's a case of what time of year they get telescope time. It's the same telescope at the same time each year so they end up seeing the same sky, whereas in different seasons and regions they'd be searching in different parts of the sky.

[@rotagbhd]

A handful of people (The IAU) changing their definition in 2006 does not mean anything, they have no authority to dictate a definition. Pluto always has been a planet, and always will be a planet.

[@Asporez]

The catchphrase can still work but instead of ''Pluto'' it is ''planetoids'' since there are so many in the Kuiper belt.

[@Layorgenla]

Yeah, and change nine to numerous to make it more sense too. My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Numerous Planetoids (cause if it was still 'Nine' then that would only be one of the plutoids and not the rest)

[@minerman60101]

The story of Vulcan is an essential part of this saga, it shows that another planet isn't always the right answer and there could be an alternate explanation for the observed phenomena (in Vulcan's case, Einstein's discoveries in physics)

[@zingodoom]

I mean, there *are* other significant and just as plausible hypotheses as Planet Nine - it could be a handful of planets, or a very large belt with a cumulative mass sufficient to create the observed clustering. The latter hypothesis is favoured by Alexander Zderic and Anne-Marie Madigan, who have dubbed this speculative belt the Zderic-Madigan Belt (or ZM Belt for short)

[@danieldipalma704]

Pluto is a planet, period!

[@Elocian]

Maybe the real planet 9 was the friends we made along the way

[@ScenicFlyer4]

Ok, so quick question, what is so special about those 14 Kuiper belt objects? Why those. There are billions and possibly trillions of things in the Kuiper belt. Out of those trillions, I am 1000% possitive you could pick out any 14 or possibly a hundred that just so happen to all seem to converge at a point in their orbit. There are trillions of Kuiper belt objects, this will happen. So what makes these 14 objects so special?

[@sonicdoesfrontflips]

For all we know, there could be another set of large planets beyond the Kuiper belt

[@rXHrzn]

Im a astrophotographer and spotting a ton of moving objects in my images. I always look them up but these moving objects are minor planets or asteriods. I am amazed how many tiny tiny objects are categorized, with a magnitute 21 and upper