Was Planet Nine Found In The IRAS Data?
Whether it exists or not, Planet Nine continues to lurk in the proverbial shadows. Now, the scientific community has a new line of investigation into the elusive space object.
That’s because astronomers might have unknowingly observed Planet Nine as far back as 1983, a report from Science Alert reveals.
An astronomer at the Imperial College London, Michael Rowan-Robinson, analyzed data of observations from the InfraRed Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) (pictured) taken in 1983 and he argues that it may contain evidence for the elusive Planet Nine.
Searching for the elusive Planet Nine
Planet Nine is currently only a hypothesis, extrapolated in 2016 from the observation of an anomalous gravitational force in the Kuiper Belt on the outskirts of our solar system. The elusive object may not actually exist, or it may, in fact, be a tiny black hole, according to a recent theory.
In Rowan-Robinson’s new paper, which appears in a pre-print server and has not yet been peer-reviewed, the astronomer says that the images taken by IRAS in 1983 might directly show Planet Nine, though he himself acknowledges that it’s far from being a sure thing.
In his paper, he says that “given the poor quality of the IRAS detections at the very limit of the survey, and in a very difficult part of the sky for far-infrared detections, the probability of the candidate being real is not overwhelming.”
Still, he does also point out that “given the great interest of the Planet Nine hypothesis, it would be worthwhile to check whether an object with the proposed parameters and in the region of sky proposed, is inconsistent with planetary [movements].”
Planet Michael Rowan-Robinson?
The original 2016 paper that indicated evidence for a potential Planet Nine suggested that the hypothetical planet could be up to ten times the mass of the Earth, and that it has avoided detection because it is up to 10 times Neptune’s distance from the sun and therefore receives very little light from the Sun. However, extensive investigation has so far failed to uncover direct evidence of the cosmic object, leading in part to the black hole theory.
In his paper, Rowan-Robinson proposes a new line of investigation: based on the 1983 IRAS observations, he has pinpointed three key sources, each of which were detected roughly within a month of each other. The three separate observations are suggestive of a single transient object, Rowan-Robinson says.
The astronomer suggests that we analyze infrared and optical data at these three points. It may be a massive shot in the proverbial, and literal, dark, but if the new line of investigation somehow provides direct evidence of a Planet Nine, let’s just hope they don’t actually call it Planet Michael.
IRAS was the first observatory to perform a survey of the entire night sky at infrared wavelengths. Launched on 25th January 1983, its mission lasted ten months. The telescope was a joint project of the United States (NASA), the Netherlands (NIVR), and the United Kingdom (SERC). Over 250,000 infrared sources were observed at 12, 25, 60, and 100 micrometer wavelengths.
It was estimated after the conclusion of the mission it would take ten years to fully analyse all the data.
The primary detector was cooled to -271C by superfluid helium, which was exhausted through evaporation after ten months, but this allowed anything warmer than -271C to be detected.
Support for the processing and analysis of data from IRAS was contributed from the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology. Currently, the Infrared Science Archive at IPAC holds the IRAS archive.
The success of IRAS led to interest in the 1985 Infrared Telescope (IRT) mission on the Space Shuttle, and the planned Shuttle Infrared Telescope Facility which eventually transformed into the Space Infrared Telescope Facility, SIRTF, which in turn was developed into the Spitzer Space Telescope, launched in 2003.
The success of early infrared space astronomy led to further missions, such as the Infrared Space Observatory (1990s) and the Hubble Space Telescope‘s NICMOS instrument.
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Tom
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In my mind, Pluto will always be planet #9.
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Andy Rowlands
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Good point, and when the BBC Horizon programme about IRAS was shown in 1985, it was referred to as the search for the tenth planet.
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Howdy
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Pluto is known as the planet of transformation, to the greater. The fact it was demoted to lesser importance by those who have no understanding is very telling, and says everything about the state of Humanity and where it is headed.
This search for another planet is no different to looking for Fairies and Unicorns.
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Climate Heretic
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I agree whole heartedly with the above comments. Pluto the Ninth Planet was stolen from underneath our feet.
Regards
Climate Heretic
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aaron
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space may be the final frontier but its made in a hollywood basement
makes for nice CGI images though
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Andy Rowlands
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Yeah right.
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Climate Heretic
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Rinse and Repeat, we need to find the 9th or 10th planet. Meaning give us more money.
Regards
Climate Heretic
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T. C. Clark
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Who knows what lurks out there in the Kuiper Belt and the Ort Cloud? Randall Carlson has been looking at the 1825 and 1871 fires that may have been caused by pieces of a meteor.
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Climate Heretic
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What lurks beyond the Kuiper Belt and the Ort Cloud? How about space?
“Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is”[1]
Space, “Where no man has gone before”, “the final frontier” and “To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before!”[2]
Regards
Climate Heretic
[1] Douglas Adams
[2] Captain James T Kirk. Star Trek
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Andy Rowlands
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I love the tv version of the Hitchhikers 🙂
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T. C. Clark
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In the Universe ….one large black hole is created each second…100 stars explode every second….4800 stars are created every second….the Universe will expand by 1.6 million miles in a second….the sun burns 1.6 million pounds of H2 per second….and there is more….per second There was no Cap’n Kirk….that was fiction.
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Herb Rose
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Here, according to theory, is how a black hole forms. A large amount of matter compresses into a star that is 100 times the size of the sun and then ignites, converting matter into energy and radiating that energy into space. As it burns the amount of matter and the gravitational field it generates decreases as energy/matter is lost into space. When all the hydrogen and helium fuel have been consumed, it then coverts into a neutron star where the electrons and protons of atoms combine, producing energy that is radiated into space. All the time it is sending energy/matter into space its gravitational force is declining. When it finally reaches a point where it can no longer resist gravity this white dwarf is about 7 miles in diameter and collapses into a singularity. The mass and force of gravity of this singularity must be less than the mass and force of gravity of the white dwarf that created it by giving off energy/mass, so the event horizon of the singularity (where light cannot escape) must be smaller than the 7 miles of the white dwarf.
Any light entering the event horizon cannot escape and will add to the energy/mass of the singularity but it takes a lot of zeros to add up to something.
Other objects in space will encounter the gravitational field of the singularity even though they are not on a collision course with it.These objects will gain velocity/energy/mass from the gravity of the singularity. Since energy/mass cannot be created or destroyed this energy/mass must be coming from the singularity. This is how the Voyager satellites were able to gain energy from planets to escape the solar system. Every object encountering the gravitational field of the singularity that does not enter that > 7 mile event horizon will decreases the mass/gravity of the singularity. The giant black hole will never exceed 7 miles in diameter. Talk about science fiction.
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T. C. Clark
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There is no Herg Rose…it’s a Ruzzian bot…spewing misinformation and disinformation…see how easy it is, Herg? Just deny black holes…neutrinos…anything else….and pretend that you have a clue.
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Herb Rose
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Believing that as the matter of a large star is converted to energy and lost the gravity produced by that mass remains. Pretend you have a brain.
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Climate Heretic
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Oh yes there was a Captain Kirk, that was the stage name or non de plume of William Shatner. The other stuff very interesting. I will trust what you say but verify.
Regards
Climate Heretic
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T. C. Clark
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Actually, Cap’n Kirk was Shatner’s character’s name…the character he played in the television adventure sci-fi series.- Star Trek. I was not a fan so I don’t know if any real black holes were encountered by the fictional Enterprise…
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Howdy
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The Romulan ships were powered by a quantum singularity, T.C
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