Sol IX

[PortalHunter]

Just saw this on Facebook.

People are calling this Planet Nine.

Caltech Researchers Find Evidence of a Real Ninth Planet

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.384.../2/22/meta

To date, the distinctive orbital alignment observed within the scattered disk population of the Kuiper Belt remains largely unexplained. Accordingly, the primary purpose of this study has been to identify a physical mechanism that can generate and maintain the peculiar clustering of orbital elements in the remote outskirts of the solar system. Here, we have proposed that the process of resonant coupling with a distant, planetary mass companion can explain the available data, and have outlined an observational test that can validate or refute our hypothesis.

[ATMLVE]

Just saw this on space.com. Pretty cool. Would this play any significant role on OA other than a rather large kuiper belt object?

[PortalHunter]

The object, which the researchers have nicknamed Planet Nine, has a mass about 10 times that of Earth and orbits about 20 times farther from the sun on average than does Neptune (which orbits the sun at an average distance of 2.8 billion miles). In fact, it would take this new planet between 10,000 and 20,000 years to make just one full orbit around the sun.

For comparison, Uranus has ~14.54 M⊕. The estimated orbital period is like taking Neptune's orbital period of ~165 standard years and boosting it two orders of magnitude higher.

The thing that immediately comes to mind for me on the way this might have an effect on the OAU is that Solsys wormholes around our new-and-updated Solsys would have to be placed further than pre-P9 Solsys wormholes. The Sothis Bridge and the Einstein Bridge wormholes will have to have a larger minimal safe distance from Sol (not that they were given any description in the first place).

[stevebowers]

I would be surprised if this were the only planet in the Oort belt; we might even have one or two from other systems. But they will be very difficult to spot - the light from the sun reduces by the inverse square law with distance, and so does the reflected light from the planet - so the apparent magnitude of this planet reduces with the fourth power.

[ATMLVE]

I would be surprised if this were the only planet in the Oort belt; we might even have one or two from other systems. But they will be very difficult to spot - the light from the sun reduces by the inverse square law with distance, and so does the reflected light from the planet - so the apparent magnitude of this planet reduces with the fourth power.

Hence why it was discovered by gravitational effects!
Funny how we can take pictures of galaxy clusters 14 billion light years away but cant photograph a giant planet in our own solar system.

[Drashner1]

The object, which the researchers have nicknamed Planet Nine, has a mass about 10 times that of Earth and orbits about 20 times farther from the sun on average than does Neptune (which orbits the sun at an average distance of 2.8 billion miles). In fact, it would take this new planet between 10,000 and 20,000 years to make just one full orbit around the sun.

For comparison, Uranus has ~14.54 M⊕. The estimated orbital period is like taking Neptune's orbital period of ~165 standard years and boosting it two orders of magnitude higher.

The thing that immediately comes to mind for me on the way this might have an effect on the OAU is that Solsys wormholes around our new-and-updated Solsys would have to be placed further than pre-P9 Solsys wormholes. The Sothis Bridge and the Einstein Bridge wormholes will have to have a larger minimal safe distance from Sol (not that they were given any description in the first place).

Not necessarily. Remember just how massive OA wormholes are. To provide some numbers:

Mass of Earth = 5.97e24kg

Mass of Sol IX = ~5.97e25kg

Mass of S4 WH (100m radius) = 1.369e26kg

Mass of S5 WH (1000m radius) = 1.369e25kg

The Einstein Gate is described as having started out at 450m radius (and almost certainly predates the appearance of S5s, although S5 tech might have been used in later centuries to upgrade and modernize it) and by Y11k is at 5000m radius.

The scalar field generators used to expand wormholes convert matter to energy and then use it to generate the fields to expand the wormhole. That mass has to come from somewhere.

Basically, if this planet exists, it would likely have been one of the first things consumed to expand Sol's first WH. Along with perhaps another large number of smaller bodies as well. This would have the added benefit of thinning/clearing out local space around the wormholes to help with navigation and remove potential threats to the asymptotic flatness around the WHs.

Waste not, want not and all that

Todd

[Fsci123]

Basically, if this planet exists, it would likely have been one of the first things consumed to expand Sol's first WH. Along with perhaps another large number of smaller bodies as well. This would have the added benefit of thinning/clearing out local space around the wormholes to help with navigation and remove potential threats to the asymptotic flatness around the WHs.

Waste not, want not and all that

Todd

This is kind of dark. If this planet is real, it could have played a pretty significant role during and after the Solsys dark ages...being so isolated from the rest of the system.

[PortalHunter]

...

I didn't think of that! Thanks for the reply.~

Convenient source of matter, though, and already in a convenient spot.

If this planet is real, it could have played a pretty significant role during and after the Solsys dark ages...being so isolated from the rest of the system.

Outer-system settlements weren't that high in population, right? Sol IX is pretty far away from much of inner solsys from the figures shown. Shipping materials from there must be more difficult. Isolated even-further-than-the-Kuiper-belt colony ftw~

This planet is pretty far from the Kuiper belt. We don't really know where it's at in its eliptical orbit, so it could be less than a hundred AU from the Kuiper belt or much, much further away. Not a lot of people there, I'm guessing. Worldbuilding to follow if and when someone manages to find it, I suppose.

[terrafamilia]

If it is confirmed, what should they call it?
Nibiru?
or Yuggoth (though you may not want to visit)?

Ciao,

Terrafamilia

[Drashner1]

This is kind of dark. If this planet is real, it could have played a pretty significant role during and after the Solsys dark ages...being so isolated from the rest of the system.

It could very easily have done both.

The Einstein Gate wasn't established until 2251AT - so there is something like 2000yrs of potential history that could have taken place before the planet was disassembled to create the gate(s).

By all means, if anyone would like to write stuff up for this place during that period, please have at it.

Todd