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A mysterious, unseen, planetary object with a mass somewhere between that of Mars and Earth may be lurking in the outer reaches of our solar system, according to new research. Scientists at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL) put forward evidence that this unknown “planetary mass object” may explain why the plane of the solar system is warped in the outer reaches of the Kuiper Belt. The Kuiper Belt lies beyond the orbit of Neptune and hosts a vast number of minor planets, mostly small, icy bodies and a few dwarf planets. All planets in our solar system orbit around the sun on the same plane but, according to the measurements made by the research team, the most distant Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) appear to be tilted away from this by about eight degrees. This indicates that something unknown is warping the average orbital plane of the outer solar system. “The most likely explanation for our results is that there is some unseen mass,” says Kat Volk, lead author of the study. “According to our calculations, something as massive as Mars would be needed to cause the warp that we measured.” The tilt angles of the orbital planes of more than 600 objects in the Kuiper Belt were analyzed for the study. “We expect each of the KBOs’ orbital tilt angle to be at a different orientation, but on average, they will be pointing perpendicular to the plane determined by the sun and the big planets,” Volk said. As the team observed KBOs further out, they found that the average plane actually warps away from the invariable plane. They noted that the chance of the warp being a statistical fluke was no more than 2 percent. The paper also ruled out the possibility that the mysterious object could be ‘Planet 9’, pointing out that this planet is predicted to be much bigger and much farther out. Planet 9’s existence is unconfirmed, but is expected to be located at more than 200 times Earth's distance from the sun. “That is too far away to influence these KBOs,” Volk said. The data does not rule out the possibility that the warp could result from more than one planetary mass object. Details of the study conducted will be published in the Astronomical Journal. Source + 2 tweets: https://www.rt.com/viral/393710-mysterious-unseen-planetary-mass/ -
An asteroid the size of a school bus buzzed by Earth today (Sept. 7) in an exceptionally close — but safe — flyby. Scientists discovered the object on Monday, just two days before its encounter with Earth. The newfound asteroid, named 2016 RB1, is between 13 and 46 feet (4 to 14 meters) wide. The space rock made its closest approach to Earth at 1:28 p.m. EDT (1728 UTC). According to NASA's Near Earth Object Program, RB1 zoomed past Earth at a relative speed of over 18,000 mph (8.13 km/s) and passed within 23,900 miles (38,463 kilometers) of the Earth's surface. This is only one-tenth the average distance between Earth and the moon. The rock came particularly close to Earth's communication satellites, which orbit at an altitude of 22,300 miles (35,900 km). But there was no need for panic — scientists tracking the asteroid said there is no risk of impact, according to a report from EarthSky. Astronomers first spotted the asteroid using the Mount Lemmon Survey's 60-inch (1.5 m) Cassegrain telescope at the University of Arizona. Observers in the Southern Hemisphere could catch a glimpse of the speeding asteroid with the help of a telescope, but the object was too dim to see with the naked eye. Gianluca Masi of the Virtual Telescope Project in Italy captured images of the asteroid's approach on Tuesday (Sept. 6) and created an animation of the object's motion. Asteroid 2016 RB1 belongs to a group of space rocks called Atens. This group of near-Earth objects (NEOs) orbits the inner solar system, occasionally crossing paths with the orbits of the inner planets — Earth, Mars, Venus and Mercury. While the newfound asteroid poses no threat to the planet, it is not the first asteroid to whiz by the Earth within the moon's orbit in the last month. Last Sunday (Aug. 28) an even bigger asteroid named 2016 QA2 flew within 50,000 miles (80,000 kilometers) of Earth. NASA and other organizations are actively scanning the sky for asteroids to track their movements and help predict when they will venture close to Earth. Even if asteroid 2016 RB1 had hit the Earth, it would not have been big enough to cause a catastrophe. By contrast, the Chelyabinsk meteor that exploded over Russia in 2013 started out as an asteroid bigger than asteroid 2016 RB1, with a diameter of about 56 feet (17 m). While falling debris from that explosion injured more than 1,000 people, no one died during this dangerously close encounter. An Earthbound asteroid would need to be at least 30 times the size of asteroid 2016 RB1 to cause an impact like the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs. Source: http://www.space.com/33993-bus-sized-asteroid-buzzes-earth.html
