Scientists believe they may have found a new planet in the far reaches of the solar system, up to fo

Angilion said:
Would you share the calculations? Are you assuming that the planet has the same density as Jupiter, given that star formation is about mass, not size?

There is a star that's only a little bigger than Jupiter, but it's 100 times more massive.

It would be odd (and therefore interesting) to have a gas giant a light-year out from the star it's orbiting. How did it come to be so far out? That's a couple of thousand times further out than the next furthest planet.
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Yeah it's no star if it's in the ourt cloud and the crunched data NASA has collected via WISE shows it to actually exist. It's just likely (as the theory suggests) that it was a planet from another system once that lost its orbit from that system due to being dragged in to ours via our Sun.

It's 4 times as massive as Jupiter, not Sun mass material :p

The white coats are saying it's expected to have its own moons and rings too so that would be a pretty cool sight if we ever get to picture it one day soon!

THE MORE PRESSING THING HERE THOUGH is that the 2 scientists who made the initial "discovery" said they will do cartwheels if the crunched data shows it to actually exist. I'm more interested in seeing nerdy Astronomers do cartwheels and fall over wincing and then RWJ mocking them :D
 
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well to get here for 2012 it's gonna have to put it's rocket skates on.

oh lolz another badcompany we're all going to die thread.
 
So this planet is apparently traveling at over half the speed of light? Can a planet even travel that fast without compromising it's structural integrity? Does it have borg shields or something? Is it really a death star?

One has to ask if it's a death start, where couple anyone have possibly gathered enough material resources from to build something 4 times the size of Jupiter, seems impossible to me.
 
If this planet is that big and is in our solar system, how the hell did we miss it? Aren't we studying planets that are in other solar systems and yet can't even spot one of the largest objects in our own?

Also why is it a "may have"? Surely it doesn't take too long to spot if we are looking at empty space or a massive planet?
 
Monkeymatt said:
Also why is it a "may have"? Surely it doesn't take too long to spot if we are looking at empty space or a massive planet?
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I think you quite impressively underestimate the size of the universe or even our solar system and the limitations of human observational technology.

Unfortunately, it just isn't that simple.

Also space isn't empty, at least not from our perspective.
 
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