"Planet Nine" (aka Planet X, Nibiru) News

10 Adar Aleph 5776
Erev Shabbat Kodesh 
Parshat Tetzaveh

Since the worldwide announcement of the "possible" existence of a ninth planet by the international and scientific media on 20 Jan 2016, I've been expecting further details to emerge imminently and periodically until 'Nibiru' becomes visible. With that in mind, I set up a Google alert and following is what has been delivered to my inbox over the past week...

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16 Feb 2016 - A Ninth Planet in our Solar System 

The rumours are true: twice to four times the size of Earth, five to ten times the mass of Earth, two Caltech researchers have found evidence of a new planet in our solar system. The planet, which has been nicknamed "Planet Nine" for obvious reasons, has not yet been observed, but if it really exists, it would be the third planet to be discovered since ancient times -- which makes us realise just how much of our very own solar system we have yet to discover. Based on a paper that attempted to explain strange orbital features in several distant Kuiper belt objects using the possible existence of an unknown planet, the two researchers Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown ran computer simulations that linked the strange, somewhat elongated orbit of Planet Nine to the alignment of those distant Kuiper Belt objects. While this is in no way conclusive information, there is hope for a solar system with nine planets once again! 

If you want to dive deep into the research that led to the simulations, you can read Brown and Batygin's paper "Evidence for a distant giant planet in the Solar System" here or head to the FindPlanetNine blog. As for trivia: Mike Brown played a very significant role in the demotion of Pluto from a Planet to a Dwarf Planet -- so much so, that his twitter handle is @plutokiller. Coincidence? 

See this CALTECH video. It's most convincing.

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18 Feb 2016 - A potential ninth planet stuns scientists at NASA

Researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have suggested that there may be a planet 10 times the size of Earth, far beyond Pluto. This theory is based on findings that the six most distant objects in the Kuiper Belt, which have orbits beyond Neptune, behave strangely. It was found that the orbits of these objects line-up in one direction, and that they are deflected from the plane of the solar system.

The researchers used computer models to show that this strange feature can be explained by the presence of a large planet further away. This hypothetical planet has been nicknamed ‘Planet Nine’ or ‘Planet X’ and its possible existence has caused excitement around the world. While this news is exciting, ‘Planet X’ hasn’t actually been discovered yet. In a video released by NASA, the Director of Planetary Science at NASA, Jim Green, commented on the theory, saying that “it is not, however, the detection of a new planet. It’s too early to say with certainty that there is a so-called ‘Planet X’ out there.”

However, astronomers have suggested that if this hypothetical planet is real, large telescopes such as the Subaru Telescope should be able to spot it. If this is the case, could we be expecting observational proof of the existence of a ninth planet in the coming months?

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19 Feb 2016 - Recently Discovered Planet Nine Added to Star Walk 2 Astronomy Guide

-selling stargazing guide for iOS and Android devices. The recently discovered ninth planet of the solar system is for the first time featured in an interactive space atlas. It has the most accurate estimated trajectory to date, and all important facts and figures, such as mass, radius, distance from the Sun, etc. Among other new features of this update are 3D Touch, allowing users to access Sky Live, Search, or Star Spotter directly from home screen, and calendar of astronomy events for 2016.

Planet Nine is a hypothetical large planet in the far outer Solar System, with an estimated mass of about 10 times that of Earth, a diameter two to four times larger than that of Earth, and a highly elliptical orbit so far away that it could take it 15,000 years to orbit the Sun. Star Walk developers reached out to the scientists behind this discovery, Konstantin Batygin and Michael E. Brown of the California Institute of Technology, to obtain orbit position data necessary for adding this new object to app's database.

All available findings are now included in Star Walk 2 and the planet is visualized similarly to the other planets of the solar system. The position of the object is calculated for any desired time and date, and users can study the estimated mass, radius, distance from the Sun and other numbers revealed by the researchers.